To the gentlemen who have been discussing Countess Morphy:
As a hobby I am learning to research the Internet, partly because I am no
longer able to travel to various research libraries.
Following a trail of Countess Morphy has been a challenge, but
persistence will pay off.
I am 78 years old, and the thought passed my mind that I should put on
record a few things that I believe I have learned about the "countess."
To begin, I feel that scholarship demands documentation, and that is
not found in any of the posts on this site.
I believe I have found her birth name: she was born in New Orleans as
Marcelle Azra Hincks.
She appears in London in 1910 as the author of several articles for The
New Age journal. Those can be found online by searching for Modernist
Journals Project, a production of Brown University. She was also the
author of a booklet called "The Japanese Dance"; the articles are all on
the subject of dance.
I can understand why she may have abandoned the topic of dance to take
up the field of cookery, since it would have appeal to a larger group of
people. I note, also, that several sources identifiy her as a "culinary
specialist" and not as a cook or a chef.
I find it completely plausible that she married Ellert Forbes, but I
would like to have the source of this information. At any rate, her maiden
name was not Forbes. One source of information (if it is such) are the
catalogs of used book dealers; librarians and book dealers seem to have
sources to identify pseudonyms. However, they are not always correct, and
seldom documented.
I do not as yet have any explanation of why Miss Hincks chose Morphy
as a pen-name. Perhaps she was a distant relation of the Morphy names that
appear in genealogies of Spain. The use of a pen-name was very common, and
most of the contributors to The New Age used "nom de plumes."
I feel that a researcher needs the vital records such as birth,
marriage, and death records. Such records are available from TAhe
Registrar General, in the Office for National Statistics, in London.
However, the searcher needs the index entries in order to locate the
actual records. The index entries are currently being digitized and put
on-line, but they are not yet complete. That index did bring up an entry
for the birth of Ellert Forbes. In the birth records of New Orleans I
found an entry for Marcelle Azra Hincks.
The work of digitizing the world's records is continuing at an amazing
rate; it would be advisable continue checking the web sites to follow the
progress. Patience is probably a better
tactic than trying to find a congenial person in London who would inquire
in person at the General Register Office for the index entries.
Another factor is that the world's newspapers are being digitized at
an amazing rate, and they are on the brink of making the access to their
archives "open" and free. Digital searches on the London newspapers from
1910 to 1950 may bring out several items that would add to the knowledge
of the life and lifestyle of the Forbses.
The digitalization and placing on-line of journals of the time is
even further ahead of the newspaper projects.
I balk at the use of self-plagiarism in regard to her repetition of
recipes; if she is the source of the records, then repeating her own words
would not be stealing. The so-called "editing" for her books saves her
from the charge of stealing recipes from other sources: she made
adaptations, to fit her format and to her philosophy of "peasant" cooking
(not haute cuisine). I believe her recipes would be fair game for anyone
who wants to adapt them to current culinary practices as well as to the
current availability of ingredients, in spite of the fact that her books
are still within copyright protection.
In sum, to trace the life and the work of the "countess," I recommend
patience and persistence---and documentation. Keep files of records and
not just notes of an exchange of gossip.
---Lloyd Beldon Lacy