Although A Most Immoral Woman is first and foremost a fiction, it is inspired by real people and real events.
The idea for the novel came to me while reading Peter Thompson and Robert Macklin’s 2004 biography of George Ernest Morrison, The Man Who Died Twice (republished in 2007 as The Life and Adventures of Morrison of China). Fascinated by the authors’ brief discussion of Morrison’s affair with Mae and wanting more information, I turned to my bookshelf and found Cyril Pearl’s 1967 classic biography Morrison of Peking, and was then sufficiently intrigued to track down Mae’s family archive with its phenomenal collection of love letters from admirers including Willie Vanderbilt Jnr and Congressman John Wesley Gaines, as well as the long-suffering, thrice-engaged George Bew. Of all the written sources I consulted, Morrison’s own diaries and letters and the Pearl biography were most central to my understanding of the man himself. Another very important historical source was Peter Slattery’s Reporting the Russo-Japanese War, 1904–5: Lionel James’s first wireless transmissions to The Times (Global Oriental, Folkestone, Kent, England, 2004). I thank Dr Slattery for permission to quote from and draw on so many aspects of this fascinating book in my portrayal of Lionel James’s character, work and relationship with Morrison.
I profoundly appreciate the support given to this project by the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, which granted me permission to freely and creatively rework excerpts from documents, letters and diaries in their vast and authoritative collection, the G.E. Morrison Papers. I wish especially to thank Jennifer Broomhead, Intellectual Property and Copyright Librarian of the Original Materials Branch. As I promised Ms Broomhead, although I have taken many of Morrison’s own words out of their original context for use in fictional dialogue, thoughts and journal entries, I have never intentionally used them against his spirit or character.
I also wish to thank the California Historical Society, which gave me permission to use excerpts and quotations from the George C. Perkins Family Papers (MS 1676), in particular the letters of George C. Perkins. Maida Counts was the enthusiastic and diligent researcher in Oakland who combed through the George C. Perkins Family Papers and other archives on my behalf, offered thoughtful insights on Mae’s character and social context, and made valuable comments on the manuscript.
The Times of London kindly gave me permission to quote extracts from reports, including those written by Lionel James on the war.
I am very grateful to the Bundanon Trust for granting me a month’s residency to work on this project in the Writer’s Cottage at Bundanon, the bush property on the Shoalhaven River bequeathed to Australian artists by the painter Arthur Boyd. I am also indebted to Varuna for a Retreat Fellowship of three weeks in the Writers’ House in the Blue Mountains.
The Australian National University made me a Visiting Fellow at the Division of Pacific and Asian History in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, giving me access to university libraries and the important work done by ANU scholars in transcribing Morrison’s diaries and letters. I am most grateful to Professor Geremie R. Barmé, who encouraged this project in more ways than I can say, pointed me to sources I would not otherwise have found, and took the time to read and comment on an early draft.
I am hugely appreciative of the generosity, enthusiasm and support for my research afforded me by director Zhang Jianguo and his team at the Weihai Municipal Archives in China and local Weihai historian and photographer Yang Jichen; by China’s preeminent Morrison scholar, Ms Dou Kun; Ms Li Yan, director of a documentary on Morrison for China Central Television; Tianjin historian and preservationist Fang Zhaolin; and James Yang, Director of the Executive Office of the Astor House Hotel in Tianjin.
I also thank Shiona Airlie, the biographer of Reginald Johnston and Stewart Lockhart; Lily Lynn; Janice Braun of Mills College; Jackie Ginn; Penny Mendelsohnn of the Oakland Museum; Heike Christian Bargmann; Peter French; Glenn Koch, who graciously shared his collection of ‘Poodle Dog’ (Le Poulet) memorabilia; N.P. Maling, Mae’s first cousin three times removed and the family genealogist; Robert Thompson, then editor of The Times of London and now publisher and editor of the Wall Street Journal (as well as long-time friend and lovely landlord); and writer and historian extraordinaire Sang Ye. I appreciate that Tim Smith, Sophie Hamley of the Cameron Creswell Agency, Dr Claire Roberts and the talented young writer Anna Westbrook all took the time to read drafts of the novel and offer thoughtful comments and suggestions.
My former agent Lesley McFadzean at the Cameron Creswell Agency found A Most Immoral Woman its happy home at Fourth Estate with the superb publisher Linda Funnell, to whom I owe more than I can say. Jo Butler was my stellar and meticulous editor.
A Most Immoral Woman is a novel. Any blame for distortion, historical inaccuracy or simply a playful approach to chronological and other facts lies with me, the novelist, and in no way reflects upon the scholarship of the historians, archivists and others who so generously shared with me their insights and resources.