Nov 22, 2008
Happy Birthday, Cynthia
On this day, 98 years ago, November 22, 1910, Amy Elizabeth Thorpe was born at Northwestern Hospital, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her father was a Marine Colonel and later a Washington lawyer who wrote six books, one of which remains in print 81 years later, entitled, Pure Logistics. Seemingly accomplished, George Cyrus Thorpe was a sickly and insecure man and, in many ways, like Cynthia, a creature of Cora Wells Thorpe, his wife. She was the daughter of Minnesota State Senator H.H. Wells, a merchant, land speculator and banker. Cora Thorpe earned an A.B. degree in literature from the University of Michigan and studied at Columbia. There has been speculation (which I have not been able to confirm) that she also studied at the Sorbonne and the University of Munich. If so, it would not come as a surprise. She was a considerable woman. In 1924 she compiled a now antiquated and naive collection of Hawaiian legends, In the Path of the Tradewinds, published by Putnam’s Sons, 1924. A rock-ribbed Republican, she served as a member of Republican National Committee and was a friend of Calvin Coolidge. She wrote for newspapers. Volunteered. And climbed the social ladder with the vigor of a firefighter. For better and worse, she is the instrument through which the character we know as “Cynthia” was created. Happy Birthday, Cynthia.