4 Frowns of Fortune
2All experts on R. Buckminster Fuller agree on one thing: Any biography of Bucky must say a lot about his wife, Anne.
3 Throughout their long marriage, Bucky dashed from this idea to that, this project to that, this place to that. His inner force led outward, spiraling into space. It was Anne who pulled things back together. The two were opposites in many ways. But in fact, these opposing forces often led to balance and peace. Near the end of his life, Fuller was to say this:
4 ‘‘When two people as diametrically [totally] different as Anne and I get married, it either cracks up right away, or it turns out to be fantastically good—the way it has been for us.’’
5 A good friend of the Fullers said that the right words to describe Anne are strength, beauty, and grace. Notice the order of those words. It must have taken a lot of strength to stick with Bucky at times. The marriage had its full share of rocky spots. Bucky’s life was Bucky’s show. He could be hard to get along with. It took a strong and sensible person to stay in the background, to let Bucky be Bucky. Anne had the deep inner strength to take a lifelong risk on the man she loved.
6 During the first year and a half of their marriage, Bucky hopped from success to success in the navy. Anne followed him from place to place, patiently waiting, there for support when he needed it. As she was giving birth to his child, Bucky was deciding on a navy career that would take them from place to place for years. That was the lucky case: shore duty. Duty at sea would leave her alone for weeks or months at a time.
7 As it happened, sea duty came first. Anne stayed at her parents’ home with baby Alexandra while Bucky went off again. It was another of his great assignments. He was made a communications officer on the battleship George Washington. The ship was already one of the navy’s best, and now it was being painted and polished for a very special duty. President Woodrow Wilson wanted to make sure that American men had not died in vain. He wanted no more wars. He wanted to see a world where democracy was safe, for everyone, forevermore. He announced that he would attend the Paris Peace Conference himself. No other American president had ever traveled to Europe, but Woodrow Wilson was a determined man. He wanted to do all he could to shape the future of a new kind of world. The name of the ship that carried him to France was a fitting one: the George Washington.
8 As the ship was made ready for President and Mrs. Wilson, Bucky Fuller got to meet an old friend. Dr. Lee De Forest came aboard to install state-of-the-art radio equip-meat. The two men had worked together before, on the cruiser Inca, proving that ship-to-plane voice contact was possible. De Forest’s new equipment promised even more of a breakthrough. Before the presidential voyage, ship-to-shore radio range was limited to seventy miles or so. De Forest now wanted to prove that a president of the United States could cross the Atlantic and remain in instant touch with Washington, D.C. The trip to France, with the presidential party on board, went as smoothly as planned. As a communications officer, Fuller kept busy with De Forest’s complicated equipment. There is no record that a minor navy officer named Fuller ever got to dine with Woodrow Wilson. But Bucky Fuller was right there when the ship docked at Brest, a harbor on the French coast. President Wilson picked up a telephone and spoke into it. His words were heard at a special receiving station in Alexandria, Virginia. That fact was bigger news than whatever Wilson happened to say.
9 Fuller was to serve on a second presidential crossing, another happy experience. Meanwhile, back on Long Island, all was far from happy. Bucky’s visits home were marred by misfortune. Tiny Alexandra Fuller fell victim to the great influenza epidemic of 1918–19.
10 Today, the term World War I means something to most Americans. People think of troops in sodden trenches, of gas attacks and gas masks, of biplanes dueling in the sky in the best Red Baron style. Not so well remembered, however, is the great flu epidemic that happened near the end of the war. Influenza was the real killer of the war years. For every U.S. soldier who died on a French battlefield, ten Americans at home fell victim to the flu. Medical science could do little. Flu shots were unheard of. The deadly new kind of flu struck late in 1918 and swept across countries around the world and reached the United States. Nearly every family was touched in some way. Before the epidemic was over, the disease killed about 21 million people around the world. In the United States more than half a million Americans lay dead.
11 Fortunately, little Alexandra Fuller did not die. But for a time it was close. She teetered between life and death. The infant was a beautiful child, but she had always been small and fragile. Alexandra survived, but she never totally recovered. The flu weakened her, leaving her at the mercy of other childhood diseases of the time.
12 Bucky and Anne had always been devoted to their baby. Now, with Alexandra’s illness, that devotion became total. Bucky learned that his next navy assignment would take him to the Philippines. Admiral Gleaves, for whom Bucky had worked during the war, had put in a special request. Gleaves wanted Fuller as his assistant on a long tour of duty in the Pacific. But could Bucky go? With Anne alone, he would not have hesitated. Navy wives were used to following their husbands to the far reaches of the seven seas. But could Bucky take a sick child like Alexandra to a place like the Philippines? He decided he couldn’t. He could not desert his daughter. He loved the navy with a passion, but he loved his family more. His family came first now that the war was over.
13 On August 28, 1919, Lieutenant Richard Buckminster Fuller resigned from active service in the United States Navy.
14 Now Bucky was a civilian, and he had to find a job. At the time, prospects were not very good. Peace had been declared in Europe, but the nation had not yet returned to a peaceful life. Unemployment was high. News of labor unrest—strikes and even violence—filled the papers. Before the war, Bucky had started to climb the ladder at Armour and Company. Now he went back to the meat-packing company and asked about a job. The top people at Armour remembered Bucky. They were impressed with his war record. They offered him the position of assistant export manager. The salary was fifty dollars a week.
15 In the days when a nickel bought a big candy bar or a subway ride, fifty dollars a week was not at all bad. Bucky took the job. It taught him more about distribution patterns, this time patterns around the world. The job also allowed him to move his small family out of his in-laws’ home. The young Fullers rented an inexpensive little house on Pearsal Place in Lawrence. Bucky, after hours, worked with lumber and paint to fix up the outside of the house. Anne made the inside look its very best.
16 Alexandra, however, remained a concern. After the influenza attack, she fell ill with another disease. Spinal meningitis killed a lot of children who caught it, but again Alexandra survived. Then she got infantile paralysis, also known as polio. It left little Alexandra unable to walk.
17 Alexandra’s long struggle with disease cost the Fullers a lot of money. Anne and Bucky insisted on the best medical care. At times the child needed around-the-clock nursing. This was more than the parents could handle alone. Bucky’s fifty dollars a week could not possibly cover two nurses, along with the usual bills. Caroline Fuller, and later Anne’s parents, had to help out with the bills. Moving expenses also added to the problems. The Pearsal Place house proved drafty and hard to heat in the winter. For a time Bucky and Anne tried a small apartment on Montague Street in Brooklyn. That wasn’t much better. In the summer of 1921, loaded with bills and constantly worried about Alexandra, they moved back into the Hewletts’ big house at the end of Martin’s Lane in Lawrence.
18 Bucky was worried that Alexandra might not make it through another cold, damp winter. Through a business connection, he found that he could rent a little house in Bermuda for very little money. Anne and Alexandra left for the warmer climate. They had a good winter. Anne’s sister Anx went with them, and friends visited from time to time. When they returned in the spring, Bucky was overjoyed. Little Alexandra could not only stand up by herself, she could walk! She could even run around a little.
19 Alexandra’s health was not the only good news for Bucky. About that time, a friend of his was made president of the Kelly-Springfield Truck Company. Would Fuller be interested in a position as national sales manager? At a good raise in pay? Of course he would! Fuller left Armour and joined Kelly-Springfield. He threw his talent and energy into the job. He did well. Kelly-Springfield’s sales started to climb.
20 At home, Bucky continued to be thrilled with Alexandra’s progress. Both parents noticed that the cute little tot seemed to have unusual ability. The parents would be talking about something. Bucky would have a thought in his mind, but before he could say it, Alexandra would come out with the words. She seemed to be able to read people’s minds. For Bucky, Alexandra’s gift couldn’t be called unnatural. Since it was a fact, it had to be natural in some way. There had to be a natural explanation. Scientists were then finding new kinds of radio waves. Couldn’t some very short waves, as yet undiscovered, explain how his unspoken thought could enter Alexandra’s mind? This led to Bucky’s lifelong interest in telepathy, or silent communication between minds. He was sure that it was a perfectly natural ability—and that some people were better at it than others.
21 Telepathy, however, didn’t let Fuller know what was in store for him at work. He suddenly lost his job at Kelly-Springfield. The whole truck company was to go out of business. Period. There was nothing anybody could do about it. What particularly bothered Fuller was learning that the decision had been made months before. People on high levels of finance and business had made plans to close Kelly- Springfield even before he and his friend were hired. He had worked hard for three months and even increased sales. But for what? It was a deliberate and dirty double cross. This was one of several experiences that led to Fuller’s increasing dislike of bankers and businessmen.
22 From 1920 into 1922, the whole country was going through a severe business slump. Many people lost their jobs. Unemployed and betrayed, Fuller was depressed. His usually high spirits went down and down. He started drinking. Fuller had always been glad to lift another glass at a party, but he had never before been a serious drinker. In an effort to escape the blues, he signed up for summer duty with the navy. He was still a reserve officer, and as such was offered command of a small training ship, the Eagle Boat 15. The boat was neither big nor graceful, and the job wouldn’t last long. But it was something to do, and it paid a little money.
23 Once on board, Fuller felt much better. The salt spray was again on his face, and he could feel the roll of the waves. Moreover, the navy had paired him up with another reserve officer he liked at once. Vincent Astor came from one of the richest families in America. He had inherited $70 million on his twenty-first birthday. Yet he and penniless Fuller were soon the best of buddies. Among its stops, the Eagle Boat 15 went to Newport, Rhode Island. Newport was a summer gathering place for the rich and super-rich. Astor knew everybody worth knowing, and he led Fuller through the social whirl.
24 Vincent Astor owned a seaplane. It was probably the most advanced flying ship in the nation. A high-winged monoplane with a pusher prop, it landed on a boat-like hull, not on pontoons. Fuller thought it a masterpiece of technology. He loved its sleek lines. Astor employed a pilot, but Fuller sometimes got to control the plane once it was aloft. When not in use, the plane was usually kept not far from the Hewletts’ Long Island home.
25 The summer over, Fuller received a pleasant surprise. Vincent Astor said he had to go to Europe on business. Why didn’t Bucky and Anne use the plane while he was away? The pilot had been paid through October. Fuller wouldn’t even have to buy fuel. Astor claimed that the plane needed use. The Fullers couldn’t resist the offer. In September, they took a rare vacation. Alexandra was well enough to leave behind, with the Hewletts and a nurse. Stopping here and there on the way, they flew to Bear Island. Everywhere they went, the plane drew crowds of people. Newspapers carried pictures of the plane—and the seemingly wealthy young couple it carried. It was fun while it lasted.
26 Back at home, however, things went no better. Fuller remained unemployed and unhappy. October passed slowly, with Fuller again drinking too much. In November, a friend invited him to the Yale-Harvard football game. It was to be played at Harvard that year. Fuller would have a chance to see some old friends in the Boston area. And surely, he needed a change of scene. He accepted.
27 At the time, Alexandra, now nearly four, seemed to be doing well. She was healthy enough to walk the short distance to the Lawrence station with Bucky and Anne. As they strolled along, Bucky carried a cane. Canes were in fashion that year, and his old football knee gave him an excuse to use one. The cane reminded Bucky of the smaller canes he would see at the football game. He told Alexandra about the little canes to which college pennants were attached. He described the stadium scene he was soon to see: thousands of people would be waving pennants on little canes as they filled the air with cheers.
28 Alexandra seemed interested. She looked up at her father. ‘‘Daddy, will you bring me a cane?’’
29 Fuller promised that he would. Soon he was on the train, then on another train headed for Boston. It was a good football game. Harvard won. Afterward, Fuller went out with some friends to celebrate the victory. Throughout the long evening, the liquor flowed freely. (Prohibition—no alcohol—laws had gone into effect, but they were often ignored. Party-minded people like Fuller’s friends knew where to go to get illegal alcohol and had the money.) Fuller and his drinking buddies honored dear old Harvard with full alcoholic respect.
30 The next afternoon Bucky’s homeward train finally arrived in New York City. He went at once to a telephone booth, to say hi to Anne. Her news shocked him. Not long after his departure, Alexandra had developed a fever. The doctor, called at once, had diagnosed the illness as pneumonia. Now, Anne said, Alexandra was in a coma, unconscious. Of course Bucky caught the first train to Lawrence and dashed to Martin’s Lane.
31 Alexandra was still in a coma. Her condition didn’t change during the evening. Anne, Bucky, and the doctor hovered over her, helpless but hopeful. After all, Alexandra had pulled through crises before. Midnight came. The child seemed now a little better, now a little worse. During one of her better moments, she opened her eyes and looked up. There was Bucky.
32 ‘‘Daddy,’’ Alexandra asked in a thin little voice, ‘‘did you bring me my cane?’’
33 Bucky was speechless. He had forgotten all about the cane. Busy with friends and drunk with more than joy, he hadn’t remembered his promise.
34 A few hours later, Alexandra Fuller died in her heartbroken father’s arms. The tears in his eyes would come again for years.