Monday, March 11, 2013

Book Review: A Diplomat's Helpmate


Title: A Diplomat's Helpmate: How Rose F. Foote, wife of the first U.S. Minister and envoy extraordinary to Korea, served her country in the Far East 
Author: Mary Viola Tingley Lawrence
Paperback: 50 pages
Publisher: H.S. Crocker Company (1918)

Archive.org location



A pretentious title to complement outlandish laudatory writing, A Diplomat's Helpmate: How Rose F. Foote, wife of the first U.S. Minister and envoy extraordinary to Korea, served her country in the Far East is a short but valuable piece of history transparently disguised in absurdly extravagant acclaim. Embellishments notwithstanding, this is a brief recount of events involving the wife of the first American Minister to Korea, Rose F. Foote.

Her biographer, Mary Viola Tingley Lawrence, was a personal friend and dutifully exaggerated Foote's accomplishments posthumously. Consequently, notable events are glossed over with patriotic zeal and otherwise useful personal accounts are unfortunately missing. For instance, nothing is mentioned of Foote's supposed domineering personality or her obstinate rivalry with the only other Western woman in Seoul. An example of Lawrence's flourishes:

The American lady at once commanded a prominent place in oriental diplomatic life. Her exceptional beauty and queenly bearing aroused admiration wherever she was seen.

For the reader's sake, included authentic photos of Foote betray this likelihood. Another example of Lawrence playing up Foote's prominence is in her retelling of the supposed feud between Foote and the Korean Queen. The grudge supposedly came about because of Foote's magnanimously arrival in Seoul where she was instantly loved and appreciated by all citizens. The Queen's alleged reaction:

The baffled Queen in a fury of rage beat upon her imprisoning walls, as she smarted under the taunting realization that the uncrowned occidental woman commanded a limitless freedom in her interference with the traditions that had been dearest to the Korean heart.

The book isn't all fluff, though. Rose Foote did indeed live a pioneering life abroad; after all, she was the first Western woman to enter Seoul. She accompanied her husband on this rather risky political assignment while in her fifties. Dutifully, she made the legation grounds social and accommodating of the status her husband garnered. It wasn't all tea parties, though; her perspective of her husband's witness of the abortive 1884 coup d'etat was graphically worth mentioning. It also seems that her time abroad proved to be too taxing on her health; she passed away six months after returning to San Francisco. 

For a fifty page adulatory account, it's short and far too sweet. It's not exactly fiction, though, so a discerning eye can detect some of the genuine work that the Foote's accomplished. For those interested in the time period, it's worth a quick read-through. 


- - - - - -

Robert Neff penned a broader picture of the woman for OhMyNews a few years back: Parts One and Two.

7 comments:

sathya said...

What you have written in this post is exactly what I have experience when I first started my blog.I’m happy that I came across with your site this article is on point,thanks again and have a great day.Keep update more information.

Dataware Housing Training in Chennai

Manoj Dwivedi said...

his is extremely helpful info!! Very good work. It is very interesting to learn and easy to understood. Thank you for giving information. Nice post ..

nive said...

nice post..
Catia centre in coimbatore
Catia course in coimbatore
Catia course fees in coimbatore
Catia course training in coimbatore
Best Catia course in coimbatore
Catia course training with placement in coimbatore
Catia online training course in coimbatore
Catia online course in coimbatore
Catia fees structure in coimbatore
Catia jobs in coimbatore
Catia training in coimbatore
Cadd centre in coimbatore
Cadd course in coimbatore
Cadd centre fees structure in coimbatore

sri said...


Thanks for sharing this.,
Certified Scrum master certification
Agile scrum master certification

sri said...


Thanks for sharing this.,
csm training
Scrum master Training

Anonymous said...

진주콜걸
진주콜걸
상주콜걸
무안콜걸
상주콜걸
창원콜걸
문경콜걸

Anonymous said...

인천콜걸
광주콜걸
세종콜걸
울산콜걸


부산콜걸
대구콜걸
대전콜걸
서울콜걸

Post a Comment

 
;