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RonMcCrea
Joined: 05 Apr 2008
Posts: 331
Location: Madison, Wisconsin
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 Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2019 10:28 am Post subject: Divorce question |
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| Can anyone tell me what the legal restrictions on divorce were in Illinois circa 1908-1909, when Wright was seeking one? When were they relaxed? |
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jmcnally
Joined: 24 Apr 2010
Posts: 865
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| Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2019 8:18 pm Post subject: |
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generally speaking, divorce laws started being relaxed in the 1970s as "no-fault" divorce became more common.
The state of the law in the early 1900s is a complicated matter and would require an examination of the statutes in effect at that time as well as judicial interpretations at the state supreme court.
If I were researching that point, I would probably start with legal treatises from the time period and hope to find a book or a section in a legal encyclopedia from that time and covering Illinois in particular. That book would likely be found in the sub-basement of an Illinois law school library or the state law library.
If I couldn't find a state-specific publication, I would look at the early national legal encyclopedias like Corpus Juris. Those would in the basements of law schools nationwide. |
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Reidy
Joined: 07 Jan 2005
Posts: 1541
Location: Fremont CA
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| Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2019 11:27 pm Post subject: |
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Did he in fact seek a divorce ca. 1909? My understanding is that he didn't go through with it until he decided to marry Miriam Noel more than a decade later.
Twombly says in his biography that in Wisconsin, which was Wright's residence at the time, either party could unilaterally divorce after the couple lived apart for 7 years - i.e. from 1916 on - and Wright never took advantage of this law. He had a hard time putting Catherine behind him. |
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SREcklund
Joined: 26 Feb 2013
Posts: 801
Location: Redondo Beach, CA
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| Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2019 3:56 pm Post subject: |
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All accounts I've read indicate that Kitty initially rejected a divorce upon his return from Europe, so that would put it no earlier than 1911.
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Roderick Grant
Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 9597
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| Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2019 5:48 pm Post subject: |
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| Correct, Stan. Kitty didn't agree to a divorce until she met a man she wanted to marry. I have never read that FLW pursued the subject beyond his initial request, and it didn't happen until 1918, long before the Mad Miriam nuptials. |
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