Francis Grierson

Benjamin Henry Jesse Francis Shepard (September 18, 1848 – May 29, 1927) was a composer, pianist and writer who used the pen name Francis Grierson.

Biography Jesse was born in Birkenhead, England, to Joseph Shepard and Emily Grierson Shepard and his family migrated to Illinois, United States while he was still a baby. He was present at the Lincoln–Douglas debates in 1858 and later incorporated his reminiscences into his fictionalized autobiography The Valley of Shadows (1909). He worked as a page for John C. Frémont as a youth.

Europe and spiritualism Shepard traveled in Europe, finding audiences among royalty, and impressed the French novelist Alexandre Dumas fils. Shepard was described by contemporaries as tall, dark, handsome, and with hands that could reach over an octave on a piano keyboard. He became involved with Spiritualism while in Russia in the 1870s and stated that many of his musical performances were the result of the spirits of famous composers channeling through him.

Sexuality It seems that Shepard primarily had romantic relationships with other men, but did not include descriptions of his sexuality in his writing or personal correspondence. He spent the majority of his adult life living with Lawrence Waldemar Tonner, a relationship that has been characterized in a variety of ways by later historians. He has been included in reference works on homosexuality and appears in scholarly works in the field of queer studies.

Tonner

In 1885, Shepard met Lawrence Waldemar Tonner, who became his friend, supporter, and partner for over 40 years. Tonner was born in Thisted, Denmark on October 15, 1861. He emigrated to the U.S. through Glasgow, Scotland in 1870 and became a naturalized citizen of the U.S. in 1875, in Chicago, Illinois. He worked as a manager, press secretary, interpreter, French teacher, and as a translator and aide for Herbert Hoover. Among the Waldemar Tonner Papers at ONE Archives, Los Angeles, is a letter recommending Tonner for a position with the Bureau of Public Information from Hoover, then head of the Food Administration. The letter was among Shepard's archived papers, which also included Tonner's credentials for the National Press Club of Washington, the Chevy-Chase Club and The University Club, Washington D.C., as well as Tonner's U.S. passport (issued in England by Robert Lincoln, son of the former president). Tonner died on May 25, 1947, in Los Angeles, California, and is buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.

California and the Villa Montezuma Villa Montezuma in 1964Grierson had traveled through California previously in 1876 performing at several of the old religious missions founded by the Spanish. In the 1880s, He was invited to live in San Diego by a pair of real-estate developers, the High brothers, who enticed him by promising to build a mansion to his specifications. The result was the Villa Montezuma (named after The Montezuma, a migrant ship that first brought Shepard to America). Grierson held many séances at the home. They had lived in San Diego for only two years. To Grierson, this alliance was necessary to protect "Anglo-Saxon civilisation in the West" against "the menace of the yellow races," furthering the racist ideology of Yellow Peril. He presented the "Celtic race" as the foil to the "Teutonic race." In The Illusions and Realities of the War (1918), Grierson describes how only Anglo-American unity could prevent another world war.

Final years and death Grierson and Tonner returned to Paris in 1889, where they lived until 1896. After Paris, Grierson and Tonner settled in London until 1913, when they decided to return to the United States. In 1920, they settled in Los Angeles, which remained home for the rest of their lives. After their years of traveling the world together, Grierson lost his popularity and Tonner, who taught French and worked in a tailoring shop, supported him. Grierson died in Los Angeles on May 29, 1927, immediately after playing the last chord of a piano performance entertaining friends who had invited him to dinner; he was still upright with his hands on the keys and it was Tonner who first noticed that something was wrong. Grierson's body was cremated.

Partial bibliography

Essays and Pen-Pictures (Pensées et Essais) (T Symonds (Paris) 1889) Modern Mysticism and Other Essays (London: G. Allen, 1899) The Celtic Temperament (George Allen 1901) The Valley of Shadows (Constable; Houghton Mifflin 1909) The Humour of the Underman (Stephen Swift 1911) Parisian Portraits (Stephen Swift 1911) La Vie et les hommes (Stephen Swift 1911) The Invincible Alliance and Other Essays (1913) Abraham Lincoln, the Practical Mystic (John Lane 1918) Illusions and Realities of the War (John Lane 1918) Psycho-Phone Messages (B. F. Austin 1921)