This month marks the 110th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, and you should know by now that I have a Titanic obsession. So this month's Doll Book of the Month Club entry is connected. It's Polar, The Titanic Bear, by Margaretta 'Daisy' Corning Spedden.
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| My book doesn't have a dust jacket, so the title page will have to |
The book is written from the point of view of a stuffed toy polar bear named Polar. (We now know Polar to have been a Steiff bear.) It was written as "My Story", by Daisy Spedden in 1913, as a Christmas gift from Daisy, to her son Douglas, and never meant to be published.
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| Daisy's original, hand painted cover for the book she gave Douglas. |
We owe the existence of this book to someone else. The book was discovered in Daisy's trunk, many years after her death, by Leighton H. Coleman III. Leighton's grandmother had been a cousin of Daisy's. Leighton spent his summers with his grandparents, and at age 14, poking around in what has been called variously a 'shed' and a 'barn' discovered Daisy's trunk. When he was a bit older he perused the contents more thoroughly, discovering Daisy's photo albums and diaries, along with her hand written copy of Polar's tale. When he was 21 his grandfather gave him the trunk, seeing his interest in the family history it contained. Eventually Leighton sent copies of Daisy's accounts of her Titanic experiences, and Polar's book, to a Titanic historical society, which led to him deciding to publish Daisy's Polar book. An illustrator was found, and the book was first published in 1994, the year before the actual long lost Titanic was discovered.
It follows Polar's story, as he is completed in a workshop, packed up, and shipped to FAO Swartz in America. He's bought by a lady, and presented to her nephew, Douglas, in the Autumn of 1911, as he and his family are about to leave on a trip.
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| Illustration from the book, by Laurie McGaw. |
Polar goes on many adventures with Douglas, as his family travels to exotic places, and back home to their mansion.
Polar has his own furniture, and shares all special events with the family. I was reminded, reading Polar's story, how Emma and Fuzzy took their special dolls, named after them, everywhere we went, including vacations. Those dolls went more places than I did until I was in my twenties!
Polar keeps Douglas company while Douglas recovers from measles, a deadly illness back in Polar's day.
Luckily for Polar, he's washed in disinfectant and kept, and not thrown on the trash heap to be burned, like the Velveteen Rabbit. (I'm not crying! You're crying!) But this is Polar the Titanic bear. Where does that come in?
Well obviously the wealthy Spedden family booked passage on the Titanic, and you know what happened with that. Mr. and Mrs. Spedden were awoken by the jolt of the crash with the iceberg. They dressed and went on deck to see what had happened. They could see already that the ship was listing, so they hurried back to their rooms to wake their servants. Douglas was awoken by his nanny, 'Muddy Boons', (Douglas originally couldn't pronounce her name, Maggie Burns, and so she became 'Muddy Boons'.), who dressed the groggy boy, telling him they were going on 'a trip to the stars'. Luckily for Polar he was placed in six year old Douglas' arms as the family were heading for the deck and the life boats. Luckily for Mr. Spedden, Douglas' father, there were no more women or children around as the life boat was being lowered, and he was allowed to climb in, along with Douglas and Polar, Daisy, Daisy's maid, and Douglas' nanny. So, the entire Spedden party survived the sinking. Douglas, in the arms of Muddy Boons, famously slept through the entire ordeal of the freezing night in the boat, with icy waters seeping in, to eventually reach up to the passengers knees.
When he awoke in the morning, shortly before being rescued, he exclaimed, "Muddy, look at the beautiful North Pole with no Santa Claus on it."
Daisy was a photography buff, as well as a dedicated diarist, but unfortunately her camera was lost on the Titanic. (Ken and I both said we would have grabbed our cameras, both for the photos on them, and to record the obviously historic events that were happening. Even if it wasn't obvious that the sinking would become so historic because of the circumstances, there was always the fact that it was supposed to be unsinkable. The mere fact that the ship so proclaimed to be unsinkable was going down would have warranted recording in photos.) There does, however, exist one photo of Douglas on the Titanic. Father Francis Browne was given a ticket for the Titanic as a gift. He was an accomplished photographer, and took many pictures during his time on the Titanic, including one of Douglas playing with his top on the deck, as described in Polar's story.
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| Father Browne's photo of Douglas aboard the Titanic. Muddy Boons can be seen partially obscured by the gentleman on the far right. |
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Father Browne's ticket was for passage to Ireland, but he was seated at a dinner table with a wealthy American couple, who so enjoyed his company that they offered to pay for his ticket to New York. Father Browne sent a telegraph to his superior, requesting the additional time off, and received the response, "GET OFF THAT SHIP". I wonder if he thanked the man later!
The book continues with events after the sinking. It doesn't seem to have been considered quite the historical event to turned out to be.
Not that Daisy wasn't greatly affected by the experience. She wrote in her diary that after the Titanic tragedy, "...all the values of our life changed, and the daily incidents, which once seemed of such importance to us, dwindled into mere trivialities." Daisy, who had never worked a day in her life, as a wealthy person from birth, had helped care for the Titanic's survivors aboard the rescuing ship, the Carpathia, cutting up blankets to be made into clothes for survivors who had been rescued in night clothes, and had no other clothes with them.
Although Douglas survived the Titanic's sinking, there is a tragic ending to Douglas' story, making one of the book's final Polar quotes even more heart wrenching. At the end of the book "Polar" explains that he realizes he will spend less and less time with Douglas as the years go on, but he will be happy to know that Douglas is living a happy life. And Douglas did live a happy life after the Christmas of 1913, but only for 19 more months. During the Spedden's yearly summer vacation at their home in Maine, Douglas chased a wayward ball into the road, where he was hit by a car. Two days later he passed away from his injuries, at the age of nine, becoming the first automobile casualty in the state.
The Spedden's continued to travel and take photos, but Daisy never wrote in her diary again, after Douglas' accident. As for Polar, the book says no one knows what happened to him, as he has never been found. I wondered if perhaps he was buried with Douglas. That was the question I put to a Facebook page dedicated to the story of Polar, and the Spedden family, run by Leighton Coleman. (You can find it HERE.) I received a message back, (Not necessarily by Coleman, as he may not do the actual day to day responding from the page.), saying that Polar had indeed been interred with Douglas. I don't know what changed the story as to Polar's whereabouts. My follow up query about the previous statement that Polar's fate was unknown was met with only, "Now you know!"
That's the book for this month. I realize Polar is probably considered a 'toy', and not a 'doll', but I think Douglas' method of play with Polar gave him 'doll' status. When she was small Emma informed me that all her stuffed animals were "dolls". So there you go.
There's a doll show in a couple of days. That should be interesting. I'll let you know how it goes.
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