Bertha Damon

Bertha Damon
Born
Bertha Louise Clark

January 4, 1881
Chester, Connecticut, U.S.[1]
DiedJune 18, 1975[2]
El Cerrito, California
Other namesBertha Clark Pope
EducationPembroke College
Spouse(s)Arthur Upham Pope (m. 1909–c. 1920; divorced),
Lindsay Todd Damon (m. 1928–1940; death)

Bertha Clark Pope Damon (1881–1975) was an American humorist, author, lecturer, and editor. She wrote the best-selling humorous memoir Grandma Called It Carnal.

The composer Ernst Bacon dedicated two songs to Bertha Damon.[3] Benjamin Lehman, English professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said she “had a real talent for gathering people around her, and that she "was so great a wit that we were all delighted periodically into really uncontrolled laughter.”[4] Well-known writers who were part of her circle include Stella Benson,[5] Witter Bynner, Oscar Lewis, Winfield Townley Scott, and Marie de Laveaga Welch. She was also active in the Sierra Club and wrote accounts of some of its camping trips for the Sierra Club Bulletin.[6]

  1. ^ Ship passenger list, Honolulu, 28 March 1928, National Archives
  2. ^ "California Death Index". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  3. ^ "American Art Song". Archived from the original on 2018-02-07. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  4. ^ Benjamin H. Lehman, “Recollections and Reminiscences of Life in the Bay Area and Beyond,” 1969, p. 47.
  5. ^ Joy Grant's 1987 biography of Stella Benson (ISBN 978-0333393178) contains considerable information about Bertha Damon.
  6. ^ "With the Sierra Club in 1914," Sierra Club Bulletin vol. 9 (January 1915), pp. 247-257 [1]; "The High Trip of 1925," Sierra Club Bulletin vol. 12, no. 3 (1926).