Ferner Nuhn’s Life 

Ferner Nuhn (July 25, 1903-April 15, 1989) was an American author born in Cedar Falls, Iowa, the son of William C. and Anna R. Nuhn.  He described his background as Middle western of mixed German, Swiss and Pennsylvania-Dutch ancestry.

He attended Lincoln School through fourth grade, Jefferson (or West) School through sixth and Lincoln again through eighth grade. He graduated from Cedar Falls High School with the class of 1920.

Early Life

He attended North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, graduating with a B. A. in 1924; he described discovering that he liked English literature during this period of time.

He received a fellowship and went on to study at the University of Illinois, where he received an M. A. in English in 1925. He also took several courses at Iowa State Teachers College. Later he taught freshman rhetoric at Urbana. During that time he discovered contemporary American poetry as well as fiction, and especially admired Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg and Vachel Lindsay.

Ferner drove a Yellow Cab in Chicago and used the pseudonym of Yellow to contribute a number of items to the Daily News column run by Keith Preston. He enrolled at Columbia University graduate school, with the idea of continuing an academic career, which ended when H. L. Mencken accepted one of his stories for the American Mercury.

This led to the publication of a number of stories, reviews, and articles in The New Yorker, The Nation, The New Republic, and other magazines.

He lived in various sections of the country, from California to Vermont, and became absorbed in the differences and likenesses of the various parts, which interested Ruth, whom he married in 1929.

Ferner had been reading the work of Ruth Suckow when, in September of 1926, he visited her in Earlville, Iowa. Ruth kept bees in an apiary there while establishing herself as a writer. Ferner and Ruth continued their friendship in New York City, where he attended Columbia University graduate school. His interest in writing was encouraged by the publication of several stories in The American Mercury, edited by H. L. Mencken, in 1927-28.

Ferner and Ruth were married in San Diego, California on March 11, 1929.

Marriage and Travels

After their marriage, the couple lived in various parts of the country from New Mexico to New England, including several months at the artists’ colonies of Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, New York, and the MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, New Hampshire. Here, Ferner began a series of oil character sketches he later called “Figures of the Thirties.” They included John Cowper Powys, Charles Wakefield Cadman, Robert Frost, Henry Wallace – and Charles Hearst, of Cedar Falls, The collection has been exhibited at the University of Northern Iowa.

In 1934 Ferner was invited to Washington, D. C. to work as a writer in the Agricultural Adjustment Administration under Henry A. Wallace. He served there for two years, enjoying learning something about the workings of the federal government. During part of this time he was personally employed by Henry Wallace to aid in the writing of Wallace’s book, Whose Constitution.

In the fall of 1936, Ferner and Ruth returned to Cedar Falls. They lived at 2215 Grand Boulevard until 1942, then at 1223 West Second Street. Ferner helped his father, who was ill, in the management of his business property. On the death of his father, Ferner continued in this role.

Over the years Ferner published work, besides in The American Mercury, in The Nation, New Republic, Christian Century, New Yorker, and other magazines and reviews. In 1942, Harper Brothers published his critical work, The Wind Blew from the East: a study in the orientation of American culture. It was reprinted in 1967 by Kennikat Press.

Ferner and Ruth enjoyed being part of the literary and aesthetic life of Cedar Falls. In 1941, Ferner helped found the Cedar Falls Art Association, which sought to encourage the showing and purchase of original paintings and other art by local and area artists. He served as its first President. The Association held its exhibits in the hall at 3191/2 Main Street, made available by Anna Nuhn. He exhibited a collection of his sister Marjorie’s paintings as part of the group’s first art show in 1940. 

In 1947, because of Ruth’s health, Ferner and Ruth moved to Tucson, Arizona; then, in 1952, to Claremont California. Ruth died in Claremont in January, 1960.

(Note: Up to now, much of this information is taken from Ferner’s own Biographical note at the back of The Ice Wagon and Other Vanished Wonders, a booklet written for the Cedar Falls Historical Society, May 8, 1981)

While living in Cedar Falls, Ferner helped found the Supper Club, sometimes called The No Name Club, or Town and Gown. Dorothy S. Grant, wife of one of the other founders, Martin, describes it this way in her self-published booklet, The Cedar Falls Supper Club (June 1993)

Not very long after Bill Reninger’s arrival in Cedar Falls, he and Jim Hearst, Paul Diamond, and Ferner Nuhn talked about organizing a discussion type club. By the fall of 1940, basic plans had been put together. There would be twelve members, half town, half Gown, with a wide range of interests. Meetings would be once a month in a place where a meal would be served in a private room. There would be a minimum of business, with no officers except a Secretary who notified the members of the coming meeting, requested, and made reservations for the dinner. Each member would be assigned a certain month to give his paper and be responsible to inform the Secretary of the title.

Dorothy later describes Ferner’s first talk, by recounting an interview done with Iver Christofferson, then 94. He remembered Ferner’s talk as one of the most controversial Iver experienced in his years in Supper Club. Ferner talked about Conscientious Objectors (Grant 6).

This certainly fits with what we know about his wife, Ruth Suckow.  In 1943 Suckow established contacts with the conscientious objectors to World War II. (She had found World War I profoundly disturbing and her relationship with her father had been damaged by his activities supporting the war.) In 1944 she traveled to the West Coast to visit six Civilian Public Service camps and one mental hospital. She spoke on writing and literature, read manuscripts, and encouraged young men. At the camp in Waldport, Oregon, she met the poet William Everson, and she continued to correspond with him for several years after the war.

Retirement to California and Death

In the late 1940s Suckow and Nuhn left Cedar Falls for health reasons: Suckow had arthritis, and Nuhn suffered from hay fever. They first moved to Tucson, Arizona, and later to their final home in Claremont, California, where they were active in the Society of Friends (Quakers). They lived in Claremont, CA for a number of years, but returned to Iowa for visits.

Ruth continued to write until her death, January 23, 1960. After Ruth’s death, Ferner continued to be active with the Claremont Religious Society of Friends.  He wrote for Quaker periodicals and published several booklets on various topics relating to the Quaker faith, including Friends and the Ecumenical Movement (Philadelphia, 1970). He also worked to ensure that his wife’s literary legacy would remain strong; in 1964 the Earlville Library was renamed the Earlville-Ruth Suckow Memorial library, in the community where they had first met. 

Ferner remarried in 1965: he married Georgeanna Washburn Dafoe, who was a cousin of Ruth Suckow. The following year, 1966, he worked with a group of people to form the Ruth Suckow Memorial Association.  In 1982 the RSMA established the Ruth Suckow Park in Earlville at the site of her former home there.

Literary Legacy

While Ferner was not the prolific writer that Ruth was, he was considered a critic, scholar and accomplished writer. In addition, he is credited with writing about the Quakers. Without his efforts to establish the Ruth Suckow Memorial Association and related activities to reprint some of her books, it is not certain that the current generation of readers would be able to read some of Ruth Suckow’s books.

Suckow's papers are in the Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City. The only biography is Leedice McAnelly Kissane, Ruth Suckow (1969). See also Suckow's memoir in Some Others and Myself (1952). An Obituary appeared in the New York Times, January 24, 1960. This article prepared by Robert A. Mccown, University of Iowa Libraries.

Much of the biography is taken from Biographical notes at the conclusion of a brochure written by Ferner, The Ice Wagon and Other Vanished Wonders, a booklet written for the Cedar Falls Historical Society, May 8, 1981.

Additional information came from the biographical note on the book jacket of The Wind Blew From the East.

Obituary information was obtained from the newspaper archive, Santa Rosa, CA

http://cedarfallssupperclub.blogspot.com

The Blog for the Cedar Falls Supper Club—still going strong in 2011, some 70 years after its founding.  Dorothy Grant's History of the Supper Club is posted as a PDF to the site.

Note: This is Cherie's first draft of what she hopes will become Ferner's Wikipedia entry. If you have other information or pictures of Ferner (and Ruth), please send them to the webmaster of this site, Cherie Dargan at cheriedargan@gmail.com

I recently came across an interesting article written by Ferner in 1933 about observing a farm auction; it is available below.

Source: Ferner Nuhn, “The Farmer Learns Direct Action,” Nation 136 (March 8, 1933): 254–256.  “Like a Thick Wall”: Blocking Farm Auctions in Iowa

 http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5060/

Last Updated June 10, 2011