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Jan and Cora Gordon

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Jan and Cora Gordon were a British art duo and co-authors active in the first half of the 20th century. They are known as contributors to the "tramp memoir" genre of travel writing of the interwar period.[1]

Background

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Jan Gordon (1882–1944) was an English printmaker, a painter and draughtsman, and journalist and critic, born Godfrey Jervis Gordon at Wokingham in Berkshire, England.[2] His wife Cora Gordon (born Cora Josephine Turner in Buxton, England, also known as Jo Gordon, 1879–1950) was an English artist, writer, and musician.[3] The couple, painters in Paris during the Edwardian period, were married in 1909.[4]

Cora Gordon
A white woman wearing a brimmed hat, a scarf wrapped around her face, and a dark jacket
Cora Gordon bundled up for travel in Scandinavia, from a 1924 publication
Born
Cora Josephine Turner

1879
Buxton, England[3]
Died1950 (aged 70–71)
London, England
NationalityEnglish
Other namesJo Gordon
EducationSlade School
Known forTravel writing; painting; madrigals; journalism/literary criticism
SpouseJan Gordon (m. 1909)
Jan Gordon
BornGodfrey Jervis Gordon
1882
Finchampsted, Berkshire, England[2]
Died1944 (aged 61–62)
OccupationPrintmaker; painter/draughtsman; journalist/critic
NationalityEnglish
Education
Alma mater
SpouseCora Gordon (m. 1909)

Biography

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Both Jan and Cora exhibited at the 1910 Allied Artists Association London salon.[5]

Their first book, The Luck of Thirteen (1916),[6] documented life in the Serbian mission of the Royal Free Hospital and an audacious escape during the 1915 retreat from Serbia. James Berry, leader of this mission, in his 1916 book[7] described the Gordons and their various exploits during their time in Serbia.

According to Berry,[7]: 224 

The chief credit for the success of the expedition seems to belong to Gordon, though how much was due to Mrs. Gordon's command of the Serb language cannot be estimated. ... The most extraordinary fact in the story of their escape is that of all the thousands of men, women, and children who fled from Serbia before the Austrians, a mere handful took the same route as Gordon's party.

Following the Serbia experience, Jan Gordon was active in the design of dazzle camouflage for WWI ships.[8] He later held an exhibition of watercolours on the subject.[9] After the war, a painting journey to Spain resulted in the 1922 book, Poor Folk in Spain,[10] which was the beginning of a long and popular series of Two Vagabonds travel books.Jan and Cora Gordon were signatories to the 1927 letter protesting the piracy of James Joyce's Ulysses in the USA.[11]

Between them, the couple wrote 27 books, including five novels and five books on art, together with numerous magazine articles.[citation needed]

An Armoured Car Squadron, the transport of wounded on the Turkish front, by Jan Gordon circa 1918

Associations

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Jan and Cora Gordon had a wide network of artistic acquaintances in Paris between the wars. One of these, Myron Nutting (a friend of James Joyce), wrote affectionately about the Gordons, whom he last saw later in 1927 as they were planning their USA journey.[12] Screenwriter Charles Bennett had also reminisced about the Gordons in Paris at around this time, mentioning some of the cast of characters in their circle of friends: "Through Jan and Cora Gordon I saw the Latin Quarter as it really was. I dined at tiny, superb, but cheap restaurants; the Rotonde and the Dome became my local pubs. I met Picasso and Utrillo and Diego Rivera, and dozens of others."[13]

Published works

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  • Gordon, Jan; Gordon, Cora (1916). The Luck of Thirteen : Wanderings and Flight through Montenegro and Serbia. London: Smith, Elder & co. p. 378.
    • Also published as Two Vagabonds in Serbia and Montenegro – 1915. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin. 1939. p. 246.
  • Gordon, Jan; Gordon, Cora (1922). Poor Folk in Spain. London: John Lane. p. 276.
    • Also published as Two Vagabonds in Spain. London: J. Lane. 1931. p. 286.
  • Gordon, Jan (1923). Modern French Painters. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co. p. 188.
  • Gordon, Jan; Gordon, Cora (1923). Two Vagabonds in Spain. New York: R. M. McBride. p. 275.
  • Gordon, Jan; Gordon, Cora (1924). A Donkey Trip through Spain. New York: R. M. McBride & company. p. 273.;
    • Also published as Misadventures with a Donkey in Spain. Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood and sons. 1924. p. 273.
  • Gordon, Jan; Gordon, Cora (1925). Two Vagabonds in Languedoc : a Portrait Group in Prose. London: John Lane. p. 242.
    • Also published as Two Vagabonds in a French Village : a Portrait Group in Prose. New York: R. M. McBride and Co. 1925. p. 242.
  • Gordon, Jan; Gordon, Cora (1925). Two Vagabonds in the Balkans. New York: R. M. McBride and Co. p. 236.
  • Gordon, Jan; Gordon, Cora (1926). Two Vagabonds in Sweden and Lapland. London: John Lane the Bodley Head. p. 326.
  • Gordon, Jan; Gordon, Cora (1927). Two Vagabonds in Albania. London: Lane. p. 304.
  • Gordon, Jan; Gordon, Cora (1928). On Wandering Wheels : Through Roadside Camps from Maine to Georgia in an old Sedan Car. New York: Dodd, Mead & company. p. 336.
    • Also published as On Wandering Wheels : Through Roadside Camps from Maine to Georgia in an old Sedan Car. London: John Lane the Bodley Head. 1929. p. 336.
  • Gordon, Jan; Gordon, Cora (1930). Star-Dust in Hollywood. London; Sydney: G. G. Harrap. p. 300.
  • Gordon, Jan; Gordon, Cora (1932). Three Lands on Three Wheels. New York: W. Morrow and company. p. 358.
  • Gordon, Jan (1934). A Step-ladder to Painting. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Gordon, Cora (1934). Hiking On Horseback. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) The Oxford Annual For Girls
  • Gordon, Jan; Gordon, Cora (1934). The London Roundabout. London: Harrap. p. 354.
  • Gordon, Jan; Gordon, Cora (1935). Portuguese Somersault. New York: R. M. McBride. p. 311.
  • Gordon, Jan; Bateman, Henry Mayo (1944). Art ain't all Paint. Feature Books.
  • Gordon, Jan (1946). Smith, Jacob Getlar (ed.). Painting for Beginners. Garden City, N.Y.: Garden City Pub. Co. p. 293.
  • Hiler, Hilaire (1950). Gordon, Jan (ed.). The Painter's Pocket-book of Methods and Materials. London: Faber and Faber, limited. p. 254.
  • Gordon, Jan (1966). A Step-ladder to Painting (2nd revised by Colin Hayes ed.). Faber. p. 238.

References

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  1. ^ Davies, Luke Lewin (1 January 2022). The Tramp in British Literature, 1850—1950. Springer Nature. p. 181. ISBN 978-3-030-73432-9.
  2. ^ a b "Jan Gordon (Biographical details)". Research. The British Museum. 2017. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
  3. ^ a b Hughes, Eden (2018). "Cora Josephine Turner Gordon". Artists in California 1786–1940. askART. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
  4. ^ Knežević, Marija (2 October 2009). Recounting Cultural Encounters. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-4438-1460-7.
  5. ^ The London Salon of the Allied Artists' Association, Ltd., 1910 : third year. 1910. p. 82.
  6. ^ Gordon, Jan; Gordon, Cora (1916). The Luck of Thirteen. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  7. ^ a b Berry, James (1916). The Story of a Red Cross Unit in Serbia. London: J. & A. Churchill.
  8. ^ Taylor, James (2016). Dazzle: Disguise and Disruption in War and Art. Naval Institute Press.
  9. ^ Konodi, P. G. (16 March 1919). "War and Peace" exhibition of water-colours at the Little Art Rooms". The Observer. p. 9.
  10. ^ Gordon, Jan; Gordon, Cora (1922). Poor Folk in Spain. London: John Lane.
  11. ^ Walsh, Keri, ed. (2010). The Letters of Silvia Beach. Columbia University Press. p. 376.
  12. ^ Nutting, Myron C., 1890–1972. "Oral History Program. Oral History collection, Dept. of Special Collections, University Library" (Interview). Interviewed by Donald J. Schippers. Los Angeles: University of California.{{cite interview}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ Bennett, C. (2014). Hitchcock's Partner in Suspense: The Life of Screenwriter Charles Bennett. Univ. Press of Kentucky. p. 279.

Further reading

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  • "JAN GORDON DIES; ARTIST, MUSICIAN; British Author, Lecturer and Traveler – Expert Player of Guitar, Mandolin". The New York Times. 3 February 1944.
  • "Obituary of Cora Gordon". The Times. 5 July 1950.
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