Back when James Michael Curley was Governor of Massachusetts during the period 1935-37, Mr. Monahan's maternal grandfather Harold L. Armstrong was appointed8 clerk magistrate of the Eastern Essex District Court in Gloucester, Massachusetts, a position he held for 45 years.2 Mr. Monahan has described his maternal grandfather as a "low-level pol,"3 "Anglo-Saxon and Protestant,"4 and "influential."5 He has a photograph of his maternal grandparents "at a table at some fundraising function with Robert F. Kennedy."9 At some point during his lifetime, Mr. Armstrong had been an exalted ruler of the Gloucester Lodge of Elks and a commander of the Veterans of Foreign War post in Gloucester. He was also a charter member of the Gloucester Council of the Knights of Columbus and a member of the American Legion in Rockport, Massachusetts.2 Born on January 21st, 1898, he died of pancreatic cancer4 on April 21, 1981. He left behind his second wife, Mary G. Armstrong, whom he had been married to for 49 years and with whom he had a daughter named Constance Armstrong, the mother of Mr. Monahan.
As a member of the American Legion in Rockport, Massachusetts, Mr. Armstrong took a particular liking to the American Legion Post in Paris, as recollected by Mr. Monahan. When his grandfather was dying of pancreatic cancer, he had longed to return to France and "have a steak and mashed potatoes at the American Legion Post in Paris, which ... was his favorite place to eat in Paris."4 Back then, when the American Legion Post in Paris (also known as Paris Post No. 1) was located in Pershing Hall, it had a restaurant, which is no longer the case since Paris Post No. 1 moved to a different building. What is very interesting is that Claude La Badarian's grandfather also enjoyed eating at the American Legion Paris Post No. 1, as mentioned in the twelfth letter of Dining Late with Claude La Badarian, "Je Suis Un Genius, Baby."
"The Senator, desperate for two eggs, used to order "dix oeuvres" (which sounds like half of what his grandson serves in Café La Badarian) in the morning and finally gave up and took his meals over at American Legion Post Number One. "
There are other similarities, too. Mr. Monahan has fond childhood memories of trips he went on with his grandfather, just as Claude La Badarian does. In a 2001 Hartford Courant interview, Mr. Monahan fondly mentions that his "grandfather took him to Europe" when he was a kid.10 Mr. Monahan reminisces, in his essay "Dixville Notch", about visiting Benson's Wild Animal Farm with his grandfather, a long-running private zoo in New Hampshire that's now defunct.6 Then there is La Badarian who recalls trips to New York with his own grandfather the Senator, in Letter 10 (L10), and seems to be recalling firsthand the eating habits of his grandfather while visiting France, in Letter 12 (L12), which strongly suggests that Young La Badarian's grandfather also took him to Europe. While not exactly shocking that a writer's fiction contains autobiographical elements, Mr. Monahan's intention in making the grandfather of the fictional character Claude La Badarian similar to his own grandfather is actually much more interesting and deserves further consideration, but will have to be the subject of a future blog entry as it requires taking a much broader look at Dining Late with Claude La Badarian. But to continue with the subject of The Senator, he appears in a total of three letters in Dining Late with Claude La Badarian: "Claude and the Little People" (L7), "Home Again" (L10), and "Je Suis Un Genius, Baby" (L12). Claude La Badarian almost always refers to his grandfather as The Senator, an apt nickname for a man who is politically ambitious, which, based on the three letters The Senator appears in, is hard to determine, however, if Mr. Monahan were making a further nod toward his maternal grandfather then this makes much more sense. His maternal grandfather was politically ambitious, as evidenced by his social status in and around Gloucester, Massachusetts, which is what a nickname like The Senator is supposed to imply.
Very recently, Mr. Monahan's maternal grandmother, Mary G. Armstrong, passed away.7 Mrs. Armstrong lived to be a centenarian. It's not yet possible to draw any concrete connection between the grandmother of Claude La Badarian (whom he calls Gram) and Mr. Monahan's maternal grandmother, because little is known about her biography, but were more known, perhaps a resemblance would arise between Mr. Monahan's maternal grandmother and Claude La Badarian's grandmother. Claude La Badarian's grandmother had a troubled time after The Senator died: the Medford Badarians put her in a home and robbed her of her finances. At any rate, as far as similarities between real people and fictional characters in Dining Late with Claude La Badarian go, what I have found is that the most striking similarities lie between Mr. Monahan's grandfather and Claude La Badarian's grandfather.
Yet, despite the striking similarities, some of the description of Claude La Badarian's grandfather has nothing to do with Mr. Monahan's maternal grandfather, such as the fact that Claude La Badarian's grandfather died after being struck by lightning, while Mr. Armstrong died of pancreatic cancer. However, they did both die around the same year and they did both reside in Massachusetts. Mr. Armstrong died on April 21, 1981, while Claude La Badarian's grandfather seems to have died some time in between September 1981 and August 1982 if the publication date, August 1st 2001, of the letter "Claude and the Little People" is any indication and considering what is written in the letter:
"I do not know if I reported to you, Henry, that my grandfather, the Senator, is dead. He is. It happened 19 years ago. He was struck by lightning and incinerated while guiding his gasoline-powered Scamp between the eighth and ninth holes at some sinister, scrubby links on what people call The Island."
I leave you with Mr. Monahan's description of his maternal grandfather from his essay "The Irish Question."4
"My father coughed blood, was diagnosed, and died within months, but his affairs were in order and had been in order every single day of his adult life, owing precisely to his being what my mother called Irish and morbid, or being what my father called prepared. As an opposite case, when my maternal grandfather (Protestant and Anglo-Saxon) died, his affairs were not in order, even though he died in his eighties, and took two lucid and relatively painless years to die of pancreatic cancer.
Even when he couldn't walk and was finally hospitalized, my grandfather was making luminous plans to get the hell out of there, and go to Paris. He liked to speak French to French people, especially because his French was fifty times worse than Winston Churchill's reduction-of-Harfleur assaults on the language. He wasn't dying: he might have been slightly up against it, obviously, what with being eighty-three and having terminal cancer, but what he was going to do, instead of dying, was to go and have a steak and mashed potatoes at the American Legion Post in Paris, which (it wasn't my turn to watch him: no one could) was his favorite place to eat in Paris. He liked to walk around France trying to use U.S. currency, and when it was refused, he'd say, well, they'd sure as hell taken it in World War One. This was his hobby.
He didn't really think he was going to have a chance to needle French people again: but he liked to think it: so he believed, for the hell of it, that that was what was going to happen, and he didn't want to jinx himself by writing a will. He lay there obviously dying, and thinking simultaneously that he was going to be landing at Orly on Monday. It was a different intellectual set-up: it wasn't Irish. He did ask inspecifically to be cremated and have his ashes scattered at sea, if - that is, if - he died: my grandmother did the first, but then impulsively buried the urn where she could get at him with trowels and flowers."
Take-away question: Did William Monahan also fictionalize his maternal grandmother in the fiction serial Dining Late with Claude La Badarian?
Sources:
1) William Monahan. "Greek Revival: Why You Need a Summer House", New York Press, vol. 10, no. 21 (May 21–27, 1997), pp. 64–65.
2) Obituary: "Harold L. Armstrong, Magistrate in Gloucester for 45 Years; At 83", 1981-04-22, The Boston Globe.
3) William Monahan. "STRAW DOGS: Fairytale in New Hampshire", New York Press, vol. 9, no. 7 (February 14–20, 1996), p. 20.
4) William Monahan. "The Irish Question", Old Crow Review, no. 6, December 1995, FkB Press, 5 pages.
5) William Monahan. Stoned in Amherst", New York Press, vol. 13, no. 2 (January 12–18, 2000), pp. 1 (Sec 1), 8–9 (Sec 2).
6) William Monahan. "Up New Hampshire: Dark Thoughts in Dixville Notch", New York Press, vol. 11, no. 52 (December 30, 1998–January 5, 1999), pp. 1, 16–17.
7) Obituary: "Mary G. (Robinson) Armstrong", 2010-03-12, The Boston Globe.
8) William Monahan. "Guns and H.H. Rose's Biography, Please", New York Press, vol. 8, no. 48 (November 29–December 5, 1995), pp. 22, 26–27. QUOTE: "My grandfather, a Curley appointee to a Massachusetts court, used to be deluged with gifts of whiskey and cigars."
9) William Monahan. "The Angel Factory: Making Martyrs & Monsters", New York Press, vol. 8, no. 3 (January 18–24, 1995), pp. 1, 16–17.
10) Darcy Cosper (2001-10-02). "Writer's 'trifle' Aims Higher", The Hartford Courant.
See also Bibliography of works by William Monahan
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