Henry Hotchener
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Henry Hotchener was an American member of the Theosophical Society in America. He is best known as the husband of Marie Russak Hotchener and co-editor with her of World Theosophy.
Personal life
Career
Around 1929, Hotchener was working as the business manager for actor John Barrymore.
According to Barrymore's biographer Gene Fowler, Henry (who spelled the family name Hotchener) "served a secretary to Daniel Guggenheim, President of the American Smelting and Refining Company and head of the vast Guggenheim family enterprises," then as "general manager of a realty enterprise of Maximilian Morgenthau," the uncle of Franklin Roosevelt's secretary of the treasury, Henry Morgenthau Jr., before becoming deeply interested in after-death phenomena and oriental philosophy."[1]
Theosophical Society involvement
He first met Alexander Fullerton in June, 1900, and that encounter started his interest in Theosophy.[2] That same year he met New York Theosophist Arthur Jacoby, beginning a lifelong friendship and correspondence. Other close friends included other prominent Theosophists – Dr. George DeHoff of Baltimore and Charles Luntz of St. Louis.
In pursuit of these new interests, henry made a 1912 trip to India, where he met the Theosophical society leaders Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater, as well as a young woman named Marie Rusak, who move to California with him in 1916 and became his wife. Marie, the daughter of a California pioneer, Judge Allyn M. Barnard, and a graduate of Mills College, had given up an impressive singer career – including touring with John Philip Sousa's band, soloing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and singer opera in several European countries – to devote herself to the study of Theosophy. After meeting Besant in India, Marie became her deputy, traveling with her around the world to spread Theosophy's good news, before Marie became a celebrated lecturer in her own right.[3]
He and Marie lived at Adyar for two years (1935-1937) and attended conventions there in many other years.[4]
Resources
- Extensive correspondence with Arthur Jacoby. Arthur Jacoby Papers. Records Series 25.18. Theosophical Society in America Archives.
Notes
- ↑ Michael N. McGregor, Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax (Fordham University Press, 2017), 56-57. Quoting Gene Fowler's book Good Night, Sweet Prince: The Life and Times of John Barrymore. NY: The Viking Press, 1944.
- ↑ Henry Hotchener letter to Arthur Jacoby. June 9, 1950. Arthur Jacoby Papers. Records Series 25.18. Theosophical Society in America Archives.
- ↑ Michael N. McGregor, Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax (Fordham University Press, 2017), 57.
- ↑ "En Route to India" The American Theosophist 34.2 (Feb 1946): 44.