Summary

Riding a crest of favorable public opinion, Sam McClure envisioned even greater accomplishments for his magazine when he was in the manic phase of his disease, and foresaw doom and destruction when his mood swung down in the depressive phase.The publisher invited Ida Tarbell to join him and Hattie, his wife, on a vacation to a spa resort in France. When she declined because of work pressures in New York, McClure invited a promising Greenwich Village poetess named Florence Wilkinson to accompany him, along with a newlywed couple — Alice and Cale Rice — who were friends. Several of Wilkinson's poems had already appeared in McClure's Magazine at McClure's direction. When Hattie felt ill, McClure left her at the hotel and went touring with Wilkinson and the Rices. The newlyweds became friends with Ida Tarbell and confided they have witnessed intimacy...