Angel Island
By Inez Haynes Gillmore
Five men are shipwrecked on an island in the Pacific Ocean while en route from America to the Orient. They are the only survivors, and their chances of being rescued are remote as a storm had driven their ship into uncharted waters before smashing it against rocks. The island is 20 miles long by 7 miles wide and densely wooded, with a freshwater lake in the centre. After coming to terms with their predicament, the men begin collecting what they can from washed-up wreckage from the ship: food, clothes, tools, and materials.
They build a camp near the beach and lament being stuck on an island without women. But as the weeks pass, they begin to relish the absence of women and call the island an “Eveless Eden”. Then, one day, the men start seeing what looks like giant birds flying high in the sky, but when the “birds” come closer, they realize they are five beautiful winged women. Suddenly, the men are interested in women again and change the island’s name to “Angel Island.” Over time, the women gradually come closer and start following the men around, who quickly fall in love with the women and name them Julia (their leader), Lulu, Chiquita, Clara, and Peachy.
But the men become frustrated by the women’s aloofness and how easily they frighten and decide to capture them, saying they need pampering and protection. Once caught, the men subdued the frightened women and cut off their wings. The women, who cannot walk on their tiny, delicate feet, are now completely helpless. The men quickly win their hearts by showering them with gifts and attention and teaching them English.
The men and women pair off, and four marry; Julia resists this temptation. With the women now domesticated, the men started paying less attention to them and spent extended periods inland building a new camp near the lake. The women, who cannot fly nor walk any distance, are stuck in the camp near the beach.
Read or download Book
Inez Haynes Gillmore
Inez Haynes Irwin (March 2, 1873 – September 25, 1970) was an American feminist author, journalist, member of the National Women’s Party, and president of the Authors Guild.
Biography.
Many of her works were published under her former name, Inez Haynes Gillmore. She wrote over 40 books and was active in the suffragist movement in the early 1900s. Irwin was a “rebellious and daring woman” but considered herself “the timidest of created beings”. She died at the age of 97. Irwin was a close friend of the American feminist writer Mary MacLane, who included a colourful personality portrait of Irwin in her newspaper articles in Butte, Montana, in 1910.
Inez Haynes was born on March 2, 1873, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Gideon Haynes and Emma Jane (Hopkins) Haynes. Her parents were from Boston in the United States but stayed in Brazil because of her father’s business problems. Her mother, her father’s second wife, was 24 years younger than him and had to raise a family of 17 children (10 of whom were her own). The family returned to Boston, where Inez Haynes grew up. She attended four public schools and then Radcliffe College between 1897 and 1900.
At the time, Radcliffe was a “centre of suffragist sentiment”, and Inez Haynes and Maud Wood Park founded the College Equal Suffrage League, which later became the National College Equal Suffrage League.
Inez Haynes Gillmore
