HULME, Kathryn Cavarly

Born 6 January 1900, San Francisco, California; died August 1981

Daughter of Edwin P. and Julia Cavarly Hulme

Kathryn Cavarly Hulme is one of those rare writers who write from self-knowledge, real knowledge, informed by truth and by universal realities of human behavior. The deep spirituality that marks her work derives to a large degree from her relationship with the mystic-philosopher Gurdjieff, a relationship that is described in detail in Undiscovered Countries: A Spiritual Adventure (1966), set in the exciting Paris of the 1930s. Writing and thinking came together for Hulme in the company of such writers as Janet Flanner, Solita Solano, Djuna Barnes, Jane Heap, Margaret Anderson, and Georgette Leblanc—many of whom were involved in the Gurdjieffian ideas and methods of self-study.

Hulme credits Gurdjieff with having taught her, among other things, how to "unroll the reels and look at the shadows of forgotten selves buried in the unconscious memory." Without this, We Lived As Children (1938), a fictionalized autobiography, might never have been written—or, at any rate, might not have been so poignantly written. The self (or selves) evoked is androgynous by nature, a wise child—as children tend to be before life dulls them—devastated by an elusive father. To sum up Gurdjieff's influence, Hulme wrote: "He taught me… how to believe."

Travel, the discovery of unknown countries—both visible and invisible—is meaningful for Hulme, and is the basis for two books. Arab Interlude (1930) is a collection of North African sketches, a travelogue, and an amplification of her letters home. Look a Lion in the Eye (1974) describes a safari through East Africa Hulme took with two friends. But whereas Arab Interlude, which is pre-Gurdjieff, describes the places and atmosphere, Look a Lion in the Eye is distinguished by a deeper dimension of feeling and thinking, by Hulme's conscious self.

In contrast to the harmony evoked in Look a Lion in the Eye is the disharmony (caused by human misery) in The Wild Place (1953), for which Hulme won the Atlantic Nonfiction Prize. The account grew out of her experience as a deputy director of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and the International Refugees Organization field teams in the years following World War II. In this capacity she helped organize Wildflecken in Bavaria, a camp for Polish displaced persons. Though she never shies away from describing the harsh reality she witnessed, The Wild Place is, nevertheless, about the triumph of human dignity over life's injustices.

Characters appear and reappear in Hulme's work, but no one so often as a Belgian nurse, whom we catch a glimpse of, as a fellow-traveler, in Look a Lion in the Eye and again in The Wild Place and in Undiscovered Countries. The Nun's Story (1956), which won numerous awards and critical acclaim and was made into a film, is Gabrielle Van der Mal's—or Sister Luke's—extraordinary story of obedience and inner struggle of conscience. Framed on one side by a tyrannical father and on the other by Hitler, with a debonair Italian doctor in the middle, The Nun's Story might never have been told had Hulme's own personal struggle not been attuned by faith.

Besides Gabrielle's real-life counterpart and the beloved Gurdjieff, the most important person in Hulme's life was her mother. Annie's Captain (1961) is the fictional story of Hulme's parents, their marriage and courtship. It describes a typically sexist marriage, the sexism heightened by the fact that the seafaring captain was absent more than most husbands, and by Annie's obsession about giving him a son, but Hulme's talent for detail and accuracy transforms the typical into the archetypal: the truth of family life, of the patriarchal mode of existence that cripples women and makes them lost to themselves, is all there. But there is no anger: Hulme has consistently been concerned with inner change, with self-knowledge as a precondition to understanding. In all this she has been highly successful.

Other Works:

How's the Road? (1928). Desert Night (1932).

Bibliography:

Reference works:

The Book of Catholic Authors. CA (1975). Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States (1995).

Other references:

America (15 Sept. 1956, 8 Dec. 1956). Atlantic (Nov. 1953). Commonweal (7 Sept. 1956). NYTBR (1 Nov. 1953, 20 Nov. 1966). Saturday Review (8 Sept. 1956). WLB (Nov. 1962).

—LINDA LUDWIG