Uniform Grouping of Waldo Peirce

[ww1collector]

Peirce painted it long before his death. His paintings are signed with a simple WP.

[firefighter]

Peirce painted it long before his death. His paintings are signed with a simple WP.

 

 

Thats amazing.Something like that would freak me out if it had my name on it.Thank you for sharing.

[Croix de Guerre]

Might have to talk you out of that someday Dave!

[normaninvasion]

Bumping one of my favorite threads

[Ricardo]

One of my favorite threads too!!!

[Terry K.]

I can't believe I never read this post before, WOW!

Thank you much for posting. Hope to read more.

Terry

[Croix de Guerre]

I can't believe I never read this post before, WOW!

Thank you much for posting. Hope to read more.

Terry

 

 

Thank you Terry, I'm glad you liked it.

[Croix de Guerre]

This is a cool photo I just came across. It shows Waldo and Ernest Hemingway down in the Florida Keys sometime in the late twenties. Note that Hemingway is still sporting a bandage on his right knee from his would in Italy in 1918. They didn't meet during the war but met soon after in Paris. They were life long friends and their families would often meet to vacation together.

[trenchbuff]

Is that one of Waldo's kids in the background?

[Croix de Guerre]

Is that one of Waldo's kids in the background?

 

No, no idea who that little urchin might have been. WP's kids were younger than that fella.

 

Here they are from a photo taken around the same time. The children are Mike, Bill and Anna Gabby. Anna passed away years ago. Mike and Bill are still very much alive. They were from WP's third marriage. He married again later and had two more children, Johnny and Karin.

[Croix de Guerre]

No, no idea who that little urchin might have been. WP's kids were younger than that fella.

 

Here they are from a photo taken around the same time. The children are Mike, Bill and Anna Gabby. Anna passed away years ago. Mike and Bill are still very much alive. They were from WP's third marriage. He married again later and had two more children, Johnny and Karin.

 

Waldo, the children, local nannies and his wife Alzira

[Croix de Guerre]

A painting by Waldo from this time period: Sloppy Joes at Key West. WP can be seen standing wearing the hat holding a beer and his pipe. Alzira is sitting at the bar and Hemingway is in the foreground in the short sleeved shirt.

[Croix de Guerre]

No, no idea who that little urchin might have been. WP's kids were younger than that fella.

 

Here they are from a photo taken around the same time. The children are Mike, Bill and Anna Gabby. Anna passed away years ago. Mike and Bill are still very much alive. They were from WP's third marriage. He married again later and had two more children, Johnny and Karin.

 

In a letter written in the mid-1930s, Ernest Hemingway described a visit by Peirce to his home in Key West, Florida: "Waldo is here with his kids like untrained hyenas and him as domesticated as a cow. Lives only for the children and with the time he puts on them they should have good manners and be well trained but instead they never obey, destroy everything, don't even answer when spoken to, and he is like an old hen with a litter of apehyenas. I doubt if he will go out in the boat while he is here. Can't leave the children. They have a nurse and a housekeeper too, but he is only really happy when trying to paint with one setting fire to his beard and the other rubbing mashed potato into his canvasses. That represents fatherhood."^[2]

[Croix de Guerre]

Now that is a grouping !!!

 

Excellent poem and very pretty girl. Nothing like getting into the head of Mr Peirce.

 

Here is the poem in its entireity:

TITILLATIONS, AN ODE

by Waldo Peirce

Breasts and bosoms have I known, of various

  shapes and sizes,

From poignant disillusionments to jubilant

  surprises,

But none excited me to sweat, recoil, shrink,

  cringe, nay shudder,

As the sight of Mrs. Isaac Rice's prehistoric

  udder.

Did I say sweat? I sweat great drops of deep

  vermilion gore.

Did I say shrink? I shrank to nought, till I

  could shrink no more.

Did I say cringe? I cringed indeed; I actually

  did cower

At sight of Mrs. Isaac Rice's mamillary dower.

It palpitated in the sun, it polka'd in the

  breeze.

It spread itself when she sat down, like lava

  on the knees.

It undulated when she walked, it quivered

  when she wept.

It throbbed and wobbled when she ate, and

  heaved the while she slept.

The Redwood or Sequoia's trunk, when

  levelled to the earth,

Fell short in full diameter; presented no such

  girth.

The greatest Tidal Wave yet known did not

  provoke the ripple

That rolled majestically around this charming

  lady's nipple.

No drowning crew of fishermen swamped

  north of Fifty-three

Could crisp their hands for object of a greater

  buoyancy,

Nor cast themselves more heartily upon a

  friendly strand

Than Mrs. Rice's offspring on this mammoth

  lacteal gland.

The tawny milk-gourd of the Yak, under the

  Polar Star,

The mother Rhino's deep-set dug, in darkest

  Zanzibar,

The laden and distended pouch upon the

  pregnant Camel,

Were warts to Mrs. Isaac Rice's monumental

  mammal.

No early twittering sparrow, up with the

  morning sun,

Could plunge its small proboscis in an equine

  fallen bun,

With any fractional decimal of Dorothy's

  exuberance

When she torpedoes Mrs. Rice's pectoral

  protuberance.

From this teat gelatinous, with animal

  persistence

A swarming crawling litter eked a tropical

  existence.

Some scaled its altitudinous slopes, some at

  the base did settle

Of Mrs. Isaac Rice's potent Popocatepetl.

This heaving Himalayan mass of red maternal

  meat,

Projected in its radius so damnable a heat,

That paper withered on the wall, paint

  blistered on the door,

Within the proud Ansonia, upon the

  fourteenth floor.

Above these twin Vesuvii great smoke-rings

  used to curdle,

To mystify topographers, twixt nipple and

  the girdle.

A glacier would have turned aside, lest it

  should lose its ice,

By coming into contact with Mrs. Isaac Rice.

Oh, Mrs. Isaac Rice, were I to see you in the

  nude,

And face those fearsome batteries of milk and

  platitude,

If I should glimpse that bosom once, --just

  scan that belly twice,

I should not live to see the rest, my dearest

  Mrs. Rice.

Or were I blind as Homer was, or had you but

  your breath

To test asphyxiation as modicum of death,

I think a little of your talk, poured deftly in

  mine ears,

Would herald forth the coroner for Mr. Waldo

  Peirce.

These gentle verses have I writ from some two

  thousand mile

From the Goddess of Suppression of Anything

  Worth While

But still I goose the flesh, I cringe, I quake,

  recoil and shudder

At thought of Mrs. Isaac Rice's Elephantine

  Udder.

[jguy1986]

Astonishingly, Waldo Pierce passed away one town over from where I grew up (and still visit regularly). Next time I'm there, I'll try to find out where his house is located. What a small world, and what an OUTSTANDING grouping. It is a pleasure to view something with a local connection belonging to such a prominent figure. Thank you for sharing it.

-- Jon

[Croix de Guerre]

Joyeux anniversaire mon ami Waldo ! December 17, 1884

[hartsmanns]

Happy Christmas and New Year-- and do you have an update on your book? I am looking forward to it so much.....

[Croix de Guerre]

Still working on it. Hope to have it wrapped by the summer.

[katieony]

An exceptionally rare and complete group...thank you for posting for all to see and study!

 

Mike

[Croix de Guerre]

Two old ambulanciers, Waldo Peirce and Jon Dos Passos. Photo taken at Key West while both were visiting with Ernest Hemingway.

[Tennessee]

Hey Tom,

This is a fantastic thread also! I'm sure looking forward to your books- be sure to count me among the "12" you were planning! Maybe you'll make me the Lucky 13th!! I'm amazed there's not an exploding interest in the American experience in WWI with the Great War Centennial already begun. These type groups really are worth what someone will pay, and an investment in saving them for posterity. Thanks for all the work you have done and are doing!

 

David

[Croix de Guerre]

Hey Tom,

This is a fantastic thread also! I'm sure looking forward to your books- be sure to count me among the "12" you were planning! Maybe you'll make me the Lucky 13th!! I'm amazed there's not an exploding interest in the American experience in WWI with the Great War Centennial already begun. These type groups really are worth what someone will pay, and an investment in saving them for posterity. Thanks for all the work you have done and are doing!

 

David

 

Thanks for your kind words and enthusiasm David! I'm on the verge of getting my first book published and hopefully my publisher will be interested in this project as well.

 

Sincerely,

Tom