CAPERTON, Helena Lefroy

Born 1878, Richmond, Virginia; died 1962, Richmond, Virginia

Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lefroy; married Mr. Caperton

The child of an Irish father and an American mother, Helena Lefroy Caperton wrote local history, edited The Social Register of Virginia, and reviewed books for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Louisville Times. Her reputation, however, rests on her short stories.

"The Honest Wine Merchant" was an O. Henry Memorial Award winner in 1930. "The Lost Governess" was listed in Edward O'Brien's Anthology of the Best Short Stories of 1930. Both stories appeared in Legends of Virginia (1931). In her introduction to this book Dorothy Parker characterizes it as "… strange, swift, tense, emotional…. But there is more about them. There is a wildness, a fierce rush of drama, a long-spreading terror, a passionate championship of the lovely and the innocent and then a sudden curious tenderness."

Caperton's preface to Legends of Virginia names her Virginian maternal grandfather as "the inimitable storyteller from whom came these tales…unconscious of preserving in an adolescent mind the tenderness and gallantry of a past generation." A Southern regional writer, Caperton's subject is honor, the affirmation of a way of life of a ruined people who had heroically fought a war they were destined to lose.

In "The Lost Governess," a Confederate doctor tirelessly attends his patients despite their inability to pay. A mysterious woman arrives in a storm, takes charge of his children's education for five years, and then disappears again. Later, while visiting an asylum, the doctor discovers his governess is a violent psychopath who had escaped for five years but recommitted herself lest she harm someone.

Caperton's stories are slight but intensely dramatic. The need for grace in her characters in the face of their defeat informs her writing with courage and honor. Hers was a minor gift but "The Honest Wine Merchant," "The Lost Governess," "The Wedding," "The Rake," and "Oblivion" are memorable stories.

Other Works:

History of Boswell's Tavern (circa 1900). The Social Record of Virginia (edited by Caperton, 1937). Like a Falcon Flying (1943).

Bibliography:

Carpenter, M. N., Virginia Authors' Yearbook (1957). Parker, D., "A Few Words" in Helena Lefory Caperton's Legends of Virginia (1950).

Other reference:

Times Dispatch (26 March 1950).

—MAUREEN MURPHY