Letters to Mollie

Abstract The documentation of the beginnings of the love affair between Susan and Jig is unusual because it exists almost entirely embedded in the love letters of another couple: Jig and Mollie Price. Jig began to write to Mollie on August 1, 1906, four days after they met in Moline, Illinois, at a Chicago Press Club outing, and he continued the correspondence until she arrived in Davenport in February 1908 tobecome his second wife and sporadically thereafter until their divorce in April 1911. This collection of 106 letters is fascinating, since it reveals not only their personal love but also the mores of the time concerning sexuality and divorce. Iowa then required a two-year period after divorce before individuals were free to remarry. For the thrice-married Cook that meant that between 1902 and 1913 he was married for a total of seven years and was awaiting divorce decrees for four. With birth control virtually nonexistent, and with the possibility of pregnancy being grounds for criminal charges against the divorcing party, not to mention the scandal of illegitimacy, it is not surprising that Jig saw himself as someone hounded by society and deprived of sexual relations on the turn of a law. His letters to Mollie reflect his state. They are erotic, highly charged, and explicitly sexual, giving vent to deep frustration and lashing out at the community that had ostracized him because of his marital position. To make matters worse, the waiting took place while he lived in plain view of the Davenport community.