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Arthur A. W. Cowan


William Kelly

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Many years ago, while reading Lillian Hellman’s Pentimento, a book of short stories, I became fascinated with one particular story about a Philadelphia lawyer who lived a secret life and died under strange circumstances, Arthur W. A. Cowan.

While the book is labeled “fiction,” I personally knew poet Robert Lowell, and knew some of the other characters were real names of real people – Joe McCarthy, Mark Howe, Felix Frankfurter, Del Webb, and learned that Thomas McBride, Esq. and Cowan, Esq. were Philadelphia lawyers.

The title Pentimento refers to an artist who covers up a section of a painting that later becomes revealed. Another chapter of Hellman’s book, Julia, was based on a real person and made into an academy award winning movie.

As I read the story, it mentions the CIA, James Bond, Rittenhouse Square, Mexico City and a mysterious death in Spain in 1964, sparking my interest in yet another mystery.

I later found references to the book signatures mentioning Cowan in an archive and some references to McBride defending Communist sympathizers in old court records, so there is some truth to the story.

I think Cowan’s life, however secretive, might have been important, and am looking for further references to him – obit, news clips of death, etc. or info on the other people in the story.

Hellman was married to detective writer Dashall Hammet, and seems to have ran in the Mockingbird round table circles.

Any assistance would be appreciated, BK

ARTHUR W. A. COWAN – By Lillian Hellman from Pentimento (Signet, 1971) :

…Robert Lowell had started to read in a rather low voice by the time we finely sat down…When the reading was over, Ted made for backstage….I decided not to follow him and walked home.

In front of my house were Lowell, Ted, Babette, and three other people. Ted lifted me from the ground and said, “I told’em you’d be right along after you finished your secret pint.”

To this day I do not know who two of the strangers were, but I came to know a third and he is the reason for my writing now about that night. I came to know his face as well as my own, but I have no memory of it that first time, nor did I then know his name.

He said, “Where do you keep your books?”….

A few weeks later another basket arrived,…and a second card on which was printed, “Arthur W. A. Cowan, Esquire,” and then a designation I have long forgotten that meant he had something to do with the State of Pennsylvania.

Lowell told me that he hand never met Cowan before the night of the poetry reading but that he knew his name because Cowan had been a large financial contributor to poetry.

It is hard, indeed, to construct any history of Arthur, in part because he traveled so much, but mostly because he talked of his own past and present in so disjointed a fashion, often taking for granted that you knew what you could not have known….He had gone to Harvard Law School, moved to the Philippines, been poor and grown rich, now practiced law in Philadelphia, had a large number of brothers and sisters, three houses, and expensive motor cars which he constantly exchanged to buy others….

But he was not a man to leave things alone when the toothache of blind contention was upon him and so, after a while, he said again that he didn’t understand what Joe McCarthy had to do with the sale of a farm, and he thought I was just blaming my mistake on somebody else. I knew, of course, before that day that his politics were eccentric, going in one direction on some days, in another the next. He was solidly conservative, sympathetic to every piece of legislation that benefited the rich, was the attorney for millionaires like Del Webb, and yet was a close friend of Mark De Wolfe Howe of Harvard and the Philadelphia liberal lawyer Thomas McBride.

Thinking about that night a few weeks ago, I wrote to Molly Howe, who has moved to Dublin since the death of Mark Howe. She does not refer to that night, perhaps she doesn’t remember it. But she understood Arthur:

Dear Lillian: What can I say about Arthur? It’s like roaming through a churchyard and picking out the names of old friends on the tombstones. Mark, Johnny Ames, Author Cowan, Bunny Lang, my old father-in-law, Felix Frankfurter, McBride, Joe Wall, all of them strung together by one name – Author’s.

Author becomes a game of true or false. What did you or I really know about him?

I first met him a few years after the war. We had dinner. Mark, Johnny Ames and I ate the Athens Olympia. He was then triumphing over the winning of some case in New Jersey, I think, and I think it was connected with aspirin, which indeed one was inclined to need after a few hours of his rather fevered company.

After that….flying visits to the law school. Everyone knocked out of their legal storpor…..(He was) brought up in an orphanage, Number 58….worked his way through college by professional boxing. Belonged to a delightful club in New York called the Bucket of Blood. Was married once to some girl in Philadelphia who played too much tennis. It broke up. He had girls everywhere. Two of them in London…Some great men in New York took care of his teeth…somebody in Philadelphia for his gall bladder….

Every time he arrived there was a new and expensive camera….Johnny Ames, for instance. Why did Arthur like such a New England Henry Jamesian old bachelor with very little money…They always had to meet when Arthur was in Cambridge.

And then all those books inscribed to us by authors who had never heard of us, with Arthur standing over them with a gun. “To my dear friends Mark and Mollie Howe from Andre Mauros, with the compliments of Arthur Cowan.”

He was a James Bond character. You remember the sudden sinking of the voice to a whisper and the shifty look around and the quick glance over the shoulder? What WAS he up to?

Well, he died alone on a dusty road in Spain, our friend, and we don’t even know the truth about that. – From Mollie Howe.

And so I went to the party. I was taken first to what he called the guesthouse – Cowan owned two houses in Philadelphia – and then hustled around to where he lived in the few weeks of the year when he lived in any one place. It was a handsome old house in Rittenhouse Square…

At dinner I sat next to Tom McBride, whom I liked immediately. I knew he had defended two radicals during the McCarthy period, and when I spoke of it and said that there weren’t many lawyers, certainly not successful ones, who had such courage, McBride pointed down the table to Cowan.

“That nut made it possible. Cowan gave me all I needed through that period even though he hated what I was doing. He’s a nut, but you’ll get used to him…A combination of shyster lawyer and Jesuit.”

…On the ride home Arthur fished out a folded check from the glove compartment. It was made out to me for ten thousand dollars….”You’ll need it when I die.”

“Are you going to die again?”

“You’re not to ask questions because they’ve forbidden me to answer.”

“They?”

“Yes, this time, they. I have taken an important job with the government and an oath not to reveal what it’s all about. I am telling you that much because my travels may seem odd to you form now on.”

“Odder than usual?”

“Odder than usual. That’s why I want you to have the check. If I’m killed, of course, there will be more for you, the securities at Barclay’s Bank.”

“I don’t work for the CIA. I never even heard about them until Mark (Howe) explained. I don’t like people who spy on other people, either. It’s not the CIA I am working for and I swear to it. But I owe you and Mark the truth. My new bosses did question me about both of you. I said you were about as radical as rice and Mark was the most distinguished man at Harvard and if I had to listen to one word against either of you, then to hell with the whole thing. They’re gentlemen, my new bosses, and they apologized.”

I said that I was glad they were gentlemen and then, somehow touched, I said I didn’t have to know what foolishness he was up to and I didn’t want to part with him ever….

I telephoned Mark the next morning and asked him who he thought “They” were. He said he didn’t know….

About a year later, on the opening night of Simone Signorret’s production of the Little Foxes in Paris, I made a guess that the job had something to do with the Common Market, although there was nothing to prove that true….Jean Monnet,…told me that he found Arthur “a brilliant financier” and so did “other countries.”

On November 11, 1964, I came into a hotel in Mexico City to hear myself paged. The voice said that Cowan was dead, killed instantly when the Rolls-Royce was smashed in Seville. But the accident was not in Seville and he did not die instantly and he had not been driving the Rolls-Royce….The conflicting details of the accident, why a will disappeared that he certainly wrote and rewrote through the years, the failure even to find out what job he had been doing for what agency, all are to this day unexplained.

If his life was puzzling, he entrusted the memory of it to people who have kept it that way. He had disappeared. I do not believe he would have wanted it that way. And he was not six years younger than I, he was two years older, and there was girl with him when he died. She was unharmed in the accident, she was nineteen years old, and she was German.

xxxxx

NOTES:

71. MAUROIS, Simone André. Miss Howard and the Emperor. London: Collins, 1957. The first American edition. Inscribed by the author to Lillian Hellman, "This book (a friendly gift of Arthur Cowan) is also the homage of my deep and sincere admiration for the great lady playwright." Boards a bit splayed and cloth splitting at joints; moderate foxing to text block; a good copy in a very good dust jacket with a couple edge tears and a tiny chip at the spine.dismissal of teachers for being members of the Communist Party of the USA.

Legal Cases cited:

Cases involve Rogers Carroll, Esq. and Thomas D. McBride, Esq. both of the Land Title Building, Philadelphia.

xxxxxx

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Bill,

Arthur W.A. Cowan also tried to produce a film. It was based on James Clavell's 'Mirage Island'. Cowan formed a production company called Hall-Cowan Productions in about 1959. He then spent a lot of time in Mexico City.

Cowen was also friends with Dorothy Kilgallen who penned some articles concerning Cowan's foray into the film industry.

FWIW.

James

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  • 6 months later...
Bill, Hellman biographer, Joan Mellen may be able to shed some light.

As is fairly obvious, detailed information on Arthur Cowan is.....sparse. There are some old newspaper articles which [if it is the same Arthur W.A. Cowan, & it appears strongly to be the case] imply he was something of a Porforio Rubirosa, if you know what I mean...dated Geene Courtney and Anita Ekberg, and was hangin out with Bing Crospy on a trip to Tyrall, in Jamaica. Was he Scottish?

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"Arthur W.A. Cowan"

A curious coincidence in names:

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=050806C

"Hellman was particularly resourceful compared to her peers. Whereas a commitment to radical politics sapped the productivity of the likes of Dorothy Parker, the Hollywood Ten member Albert Malz, and Dashiell Hammett, this was not true in Hellman's case. "She made both political and creative use of her political commitments," writes Martinson."

Mississippi Sovereignty Commission files (they didn't approve of Sammy and the rat pack): http://www.mdah.state.ms.us/arlib/contents...22|1|1|1|66994|

Film: "The execution of Private Slovic"

3 March 1960, Hollywood "Maltz is hired by Sinatra Firm"

"....Warren Cowan, Sinatras public agent said..."

Edited by John Dolva
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"Arthur W.A. Cowan"

A curious coincidence in names:

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=050806C

"Hellman was particularly resourceful compared to her peers. Whereas a commitment to radical politics sapped the productivity of the likes of Dorothy Parker, the Hollywood Ten member Albert Malz, and Dashiell Hammett, this was not true in Hellman's case. "She made both political and creative use of her political commitments," writes Martinson."

Mississippi Sovereignty Commission files (they didn't approve of Sammy and the rat pack): http://www.mdah.state.ms.us/arlib/contents...22|1|1|1|66994|

Film: "The execution of Private Slovic"

3 March 1960, Hollywood "Maltz is hired by Sinatra Firm"

"....Warren Cowan, Sinatras public agent said..."

Dr. Robert and John D.,

While it might be, I would not think A. W. A. Cowan, Esq., Philadelphia attorney, and Warren Cowan, Sinatra press agent, though they might be related.

BK

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"Arthur W.A. Cowan"

A curious coincidence in names:

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=050806C

"Hellman was particularly resourceful compared to her peers. Whereas a commitment to radical politics sapped the productivity of the likes of Dorothy Parker, the Hollywood Ten member Albert Malz, and Dashiell Hammett, this was not true in Hellman's case. "She made both political and creative use of her political commitments," writes Martinson."

Mississippi Sovereignty Commission files (they didn't approve of Sammy and the rat pack): http://www.mdah.state.ms.us/arlib/contents...22|1|1|1|66994|

Film: "The execution of Private Slovic"

3 March 1960, Hollywood "Maltz is hired by Sinatra Firm"

"....Warren Cowan, Sinatras public agent said..."

John, it's not the same person. This guy heads up one of the biggest PR firms in the world.

Arthur WA Cowan did however, represent Philadelphia's AGVA branch and gambling interests before various senate committees. Independently wealthy, he also controlled two Philadelphia "philanthropic" foundations. Sorry Bill, haven't got the names of them yet.

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  • 2 months later...
"Arthur W.A. Cowan"

A curious coincidence in names:

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=050806C

"Hellman was particularly resourceful compared to her peers. Whereas a commitment to radical politics sapped the productivity of the likes of Dorothy Parker, the Hollywood Ten member Albert Malz, and Dashiell Hammett, this was not true in Hellman's case. "She made both political and creative use of her political commitments," writes Martinson."

Mississippi Sovereignty Commission files (they didn't approve of Sammy and the rat pack): http://www.mdah.state.ms.us/arlib/contents...22|1|1|1|66994|

Film: "The execution of Private Slovic"

3 March 1960, Hollywood "Maltz is hired by Sinatra Firm"

"....Warren Cowan, Sinatras public agent said..."

John, it's not the same person. This guy heads up one of the biggest PR firms in the world.

Arthur WA Cowan did however, represent Philadelphia's AGVA branch and gambling interests before various senate committees. Independently wealthy, he also controlled two Philadelphia "philanthropic" foundations. Sorry Bill, haven't got the names of them yet.

Is the November 11, 1964 date mentioned, THE date of death? Or was it earlier/later? I may be able to offer a little help, but I need to establish whether referenced date is accurate.

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  • 9 months later...

Complete text to the Arthur Cowan Memorial Service book

1965 q. Mr. Edwin Wuisshene

Arthur W. A. Cowan. Born, Philadelphia, Pa., June 27, 1905.

Died, Malaga, Spain, November 10, 1964

Bibliography

University of Pennsylvania, A.B. . . . . . 1927

Harvard Law School, L.L.B . . . . . . . . . 1930

Harvard Law School, L.L.M . . . . . . . . . 1936

At the Memorial Services November 20, 1964 these words were spoken by his long-time friend, Thomas D.

McBride:

It seems fitting that I should read these words that I received from Lillian Hellman:

Dear Tom,

I wanted to be with you today and I couldn’t be.

The reasons do not matter and would not have

mattered to Arthur. He knew that I loved him in

truth, And the truth was that he was like nobody

else who ever lived: full of contradictions and

crankiness; alway’s brilliant and often illogical;

sometimes angry without justice; intolerant

about small things and charitable where it was

important.

You once told me that if you were in trouble in a

dark alley, Arthur was the man you wanted to have

behind you. Certainly he was brave and loyal.

But maybe the largest word in any language is

honor and he was a man of such high honor that

he never had to think about it or talk about it and

maybe never even knew that it was there.

Give him my love today and not the tears that are

on this paper. He was a gay man and would not

have wanted tears from any of us. All of us can hear

his laughter and that’s the way he will want us

to remember him.

________________________________________________________________________________

__________________

To me has fallen the task of speaking at the burial of

my beloved friend, Arthur.

It was forty years ago that he used to come into the

boxing-room at the University of Pennsylvania,

put on the gloves, and with a total absence of style,

keep slugging away until something had to give. At

the end of the day he would tuck awawy his inevitable

book of French or English poetry tucked under his arm.

Afterwards he went to Cambridge, to Hawaii, and

back to Cambridge, during which time I never saw

nor heard from him. But when he came back to Phila-

delphia, as a lawyer, we used to lunch together

almost every day for some years.

We had a group of 7 or 8 and our discussions

roamed all over. It was during one of them that

I peevishly said to him, “If you’re ever done in,

the crime won’t be solved. There would be

too many suspects” Upon which, he snarled

back at me, “The trouble with you is, too many

people like you.” I felt the sting of the admonition

and I hope in later years he had cause to modify it.

In the days when we both had offices in the Liberty

Trust Building, he had a combination recorder-radio

and we recorded the early wartime speeches of

Winston Churchill, punctuated with the squeals of

the trolley car wheels as they went up and down Arch

Street. Ever afterward, nobody but us could understand

what these strange noises were.

He had a temper, but it was in defending an indefensible

position that his wrath was truly choleric. And I think,

in a sense, his anger grew out of his complete dedication

to the truth as he saw it and the compelling forces of his duty

to tell it whether it constituted good manners or bad.

One of his most admirable qualities was his lack of

neutrality about anything. Even when he pretended great

indifference, he was involved. He was like Oliver St. John

Gogarty’s Blackbird: “Filled with fight and self-reliance.

Warring with all evil chance.”

Arthur’s love of language was a passion. His appreciation

of the art of writing was accompanied by a deeply felt

emotional response. Together they produced the lively,

incisive, witty, brilliant companion who gave us so

many unforgettable hours.

His hatred of the second-rate in art, as in life, was

palpable, but he was also filled with compulsions I didn’t

understand. He had within him a force that urged him on.

Joyce Kilmer wrote it and Arthur himself often quoted it:

“For nothing keeps a poet

In his high singing mood

Like unappeasable hunger

For unattainable food.”

He took the Brandeis Lawyers Society and made it

broader than the mere worship of Justice Brandeis,

great as he was. He brought to its now-famous dinners,

speakers on art, literature, politics, law, philosophy and

preceded and followed the dinner meetings with the most

delightful informal talks at his apartment. One of his friends

has called him the gentlest and tenderest of men. Another

told me on the telephone the other night that Arthur was the

kind of man who did good for people behind their backs.

I suppose, however, the thing that most of us remember

and that I, for one, treasure, was that he was just about

the gayest man I ever knew. He was not given to telling

stilted hackneyed jokes, but stories of actual events,

skillfully, embroidered to give a really humorous twist,

which left him with as well as his auditors in convulsions

of laughter.

So you see he was not a copy of quite anybody else—

he was his own authentic original.

I believe, on a purely subjective basis, that in the latter

years his comings and goings about the face of Europe

were not idle rambles. I know that his courage was limitless

and that he was a brave patriot. I held him high as a man.

I felt that he was trying to satisfy his “unappeasable hunger

for unattainable food.” I hope that he found what he was

looking for.

Each of us will miss him in many different ways. I join

you in the solemn wish that he now rests in peace.

Twenty-Third Psalm

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

He leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul:

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death,

I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Kaddish

Yis-ga-dal v-yis-ka-dash sh-mai ra-bo, b-ol-mo dee-vro

chir-oo-sai, v-yamlich mal-choo-sai b-cha-yai-chon oov-

yomai-chon oo-ve-cha-yai d-chol-bais Yis-ro-ail, ba-a-go-lo

oo-vizman ko-reev; v’im-roo o-main.

Ye-hai sh-mai rab-bo m’vo-rach l’o-lam ool-ol-mai ol-

ma-yo

Yis-bo-rach v’yish-ta-bach, v’yis-po-ar, v’yis-rom-mam,

v’yis-na-sai, v’yis-ha-dar, v’yis-ah-lai v-yis-hal-lal sh-mai

d’kood-sho b’rich hoo,l’ai-lo min kol bir-cho-so v’shi-roso,

toosh-b’cho-so v’ne-cho-mo-so da-a-mi-ron b’ol-mo; v’im-

roo o’main

Ye-hai sh'lo-mo ra-bo min sh'ma-yo, v'cha-yim o’lai-noo

v'al kol Yis-ro-ail, v’im-roo-o-main.

Oseh sho-lom bim-ro-mov, hoo ya-a-seh sho-lom o-lai-noo

v'al kol Yis-ro-ail, v'im-roo o-main.

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Robert, Many thanks for all you do, especially tracking down this rare gem.

I wonder exactly which US government agency Cowan worked for?

BK

Complete text to the Arthur Cowan Memorial Service book

1965 q. Mr. Edwin Wuisshene

Arthur W. A. Cowan. Born, Philadelphia, Pa., June 27, 1905.

Died, Malaga, Spain, November 10, 1964

Bibliography

University of Pennsylvania, A.B. . . . . . 1927

Harvard Law School, L.L.B . . . . . . . . . 1930

Harvard Law School, L.L.M . . . . . . . . . 1936

At the Memorial Services November 20, 1964 these words were spoken by his long-time friend, Thomas D.

McBride:

It seems fitting that I should read these words that I received from Lillian Hellman:

Dear Tom,

I wanted to be with you today and I couldn't be.

The reasons do not matter and would not have

mattered to Arthur. He knew that I loved him in

truth, And the truth was that he was like nobody

else who ever lived: full of contradictions and

crankiness; alway's brilliant and often illogical;

sometimes angry without justice; intolerant

about small things and charitable where it was

important.

You once told me that if you were in trouble in a

dark alley, Arthur was the man you wanted to have

behind you. Certainly he was brave and loyal.

But maybe the largest word in any language is

honor and he was a man of such high honor that

he never had to think about it or talk about it and

maybe never even knew that it was there.

Give him my love today and not the tears that are

on this paper. He was a gay man and would not

have wanted tears from any of us. All of us can hear

his laughter and that's the way he will want us

to remember him.

________________________________________________________________________________

__________________

To me has fallen the task of speaking at the burial of

my beloved friend, Arthur.

It was forty years ago that he used to come into the

boxing-room at the University of Pennsylvania,

put on the gloves, and with a total absence of style,

keep slugging away until something had to give. At

the end of the day he would tuck awawy his inevitable

book of French or English poetry tucked under his arm.

Afterwards he went to Cambridge, to Hawaii, and

back to Cambridge, during which time I never saw

nor heard from him. But when he came back to Phila-

delphia, as a lawyer, we used to lunch together

almost every day for some years.

We had a group of 7 or 8 and our discussions

roamed all over. It was during one of them that

I peevishly said to him, "If you're ever done in,

the crime won't be solved. There would be

too many suspects" Upon which, he snarled

back at me, "The trouble with you is, too many

people like you." I felt the sting of the admonition

and I hope in later years he had cause to modify it.

In the days when we both had offices in the Liberty

Trust Building, he had a combination recorder-radio

and we recorded the early wartime speeches of

Winston Churchill, punctuated with the squeals of

the trolley car wheels as they went up and down Arch

Street. Ever afterward, nobody but us could understand

what these strange noises were.

He had a temper, but it was in defending an indefensible

position that his wrath was truly choleric. And I think,

in a sense, his anger grew out of his complete dedication

to the truth as he saw it and the compelling forces of his duty

to tell it whether it constituted good manners or bad.

One of his most admirable qualities was his lack of

neutrality about anything. Even when he pretended great

indifference, he was involved. He was like Oliver St. John

Gogarty's Blackbird: "Filled with fight and self-reliance.

Warring with all evil chance."

Arthur's love of language was a passion. His appreciation

of the art of writing was accompanied by a deeply felt

emotional response. Together they produced the lively,

incisive, witty, brilliant companion who gave us so

many unforgettable hours.

His hatred of the second-rate in art, as in life, was

palpable, but he was also filled with compulsions I didn't

understand. He had within him a force that urged him on.

Joyce Kilmer wrote it and Arthur himself often quoted it:

"For nothing keeps a poet

In his high singing mood

Like unappeasable hunger

For unattainable food."

He took the Brandeis Lawyers Society and made it

broader than the mere worship of Justice Brandeis,

great as he was. He brought to its now-famous dinners,

speakers on art, literature, politics, law, philosophy and

preceded and followed the dinner meetings with the most

delightful informal talks at his apartment. One of his friends

has called him the gentlest and tenderest of men. Another

told me on the telephone the other night that Arthur was the

kind of man who did good for people behind their backs.

I suppose, however, the thing that most of us remember

and that I, for one, treasure, was that he was just about

the gayest man I ever knew. He was not given to telling

stilted hackneyed jokes, but stories of actual events,

skillfully, embroidered to give a really humorous twist,

which left him with as well as his auditors in convulsions

of laughter.

So you see he was not a copy of quite anybody else—

he was his own authentic original.

I believe, on a purely subjective basis, that in the latter

years his comings and goings about the face of Europe

were not idle rambles. I know that his courage was limitless

and that he was a brave patriot. I held him high as a man.

I felt that he was trying to satisfy his "unappeasable hunger

for unattainable food." I hope that he found what he was

looking for.

Each of us will miss him in many different ways. I join

you in the solemn wish that he now rests in peace.

Twenty-Third Psalm

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

He leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul:

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death,

I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Kaddish

Yis-ga-dal v-yis-ka-dash sh-mai ra-bo, b-ol-mo dee-vro

chir-oo-sai, v-yamlich mal-choo-sai b-cha-yai-chon oov-

yomai-chon oo-ve-cha-yai d-chol-bais Yis-ro-ail, ba-a-go-lo

oo-vizman ko-reev; v'im-roo o-main.

Ye-hai sh-mai rab-bo m'vo-rach l'o-lam ool-ol-mai ol-

ma-yo

Yis-bo-rach v'yish-ta-bach, v'yis-po-ar, v'yis-rom-mam,

v'yis-na-sai, v'yis-ha-dar, v'yis-ah-lai v-yis-hal-lal sh-mai

d'kood-sho b'rich hoo,l'ai-lo min kol bir-cho-so v'shi-roso,

toosh-b'cho-so v'ne-cho-mo-so da-a-mi-ron b'ol-mo; v'im-

roo o'main

Ye-hai sh'lo-mo ra-bo min sh'ma-yo, v'cha-yim o'lai-noo

v'al kol Yis-ro-ail, v'im-roo-o-main.

Oseh sho-lom bim-ro-mov, hoo ya-a-seh sho-lom o-lai-noo

v'al kol Yis-ro-ail, v'im-roo o-main.

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  • 5 months later...
Robert, Many thanks for all you do, especially tracking down this rare gem.

I wonder exactly which US government agency Cowan worked for?

BK

Complete text to the Arthur Cowan Memorial Service book

1965 q. Mr. Edwin Wuisshene

Arthur W. A. Cowan. Born, Philadelphia, Pa., June 27, 1905.

Died, Malaga, Spain, November 10, 1964

Bibliography

University of Pennsylvania, A.B. . . . . . 1927

Harvard Law School, L.L.B . . . . . . . . . 1930

Harvard Law School, L.L.M . . . . . . . . . 1936

At the Memorial Services November 20, 1964 these words were spoken by his long-time friend, Thomas D.

McBride:

It seems fitting that I should read these words that I received from Lillian Hellman:

Dear Tom,

I wanted to be with you today and I couldn't be.

The reasons do not matter and would not have

mattered to Arthur. He knew that I loved him in

truth, And the truth was that he was like nobody

else who ever lived: full of contradictions and

crankiness; alway's brilliant and often illogical;

sometimes angry without justice; intolerant

about small things and charitable where it was

important.

You once told me that if you were in trouble in a

dark alley, Arthur was the man you wanted to have

behind you. Certainly he was brave and loyal.

But maybe the largest word in any language is

honor and he was a man of such high honor that

he never had to think about it or talk about it and

maybe never even knew that it was there.

Give him my love today and not the tears that are

on this paper. He was a gay man and would not

have wanted tears from any of us. All of us can hear

his laughter and that's the way he will want us

to remember him.

________________________________________________________________________________

__________________

To me has fallen the task of speaking at the burial of

my beloved friend, Arthur.

It was forty years ago that he used to come into the

boxing-room at the University of Pennsylvania,

put on the gloves, and with a total absence of style,

keep slugging away until something had to give. At

the end of the day he would tuck awawy his inevitable

book of French or English poetry tucked under his arm.

Afterwards he went to Cambridge, to Hawaii, and

back to Cambridge, during which time I never saw

nor heard from him. But when he came back to Phila-

delphia, as a lawyer, we used to lunch together

almost every day for some years.

We had a group of 7 or 8 and our discussions

roamed all over. It was during one of them that

I peevishly said to him, "If you're ever done in,

the crime won't be solved. There would be

too many suspects" Upon which, he snarled

back at me, "The trouble with you is, too many

people like you." I felt the sting of the admonition

and I hope in later years he had cause to modify it.

In the days when we both had offices in the Liberty

Trust Building, he had a combination recorder-radio

and we recorded the early wartime speeches of

Winston Churchill, punctuated with the squeals of

the trolley car wheels as they went up and down Arch

Street. Ever afterward, nobody but us could understand

what these strange noises were.

He had a temper, but it was in defending an indefensible

position that his wrath was truly choleric. And I think,

in a sense, his anger grew out of his complete dedication

to the truth as he saw it and the compelling forces of his duty

to tell it whether it constituted good manners or bad.

One of his most admirable qualities was his lack of

neutrality about anything. Even when he pretended great

indifference, he was involved. He was like Oliver St. John

Gogarty's Blackbird: "Filled with fight and self-reliance.

Warring with all evil chance."

Arthur's love of language was a passion. His appreciation

of the art of writing was accompanied by a deeply felt

emotional response. Together they produced the lively,

incisive, witty, brilliant companion who gave us so

many unforgettable hours.

His hatred of the second-rate in art, as in life, was

palpable, but he was also filled with compulsions I didn't

understand. He had within him a force that urged him on.

Joyce Kilmer wrote it and Arthur himself often quoted it:

"For nothing keeps a poet

In his high singing mood

Like unappeasable hunger

For unattainable food."

He took the Brandeis Lawyers Society and made it

broader than the mere worship of Justice Brandeis,

great as he was. He brought to its now-famous dinners,

speakers on art, literature, politics, law, philosophy and

preceded and followed the dinner meetings with the most

delightful informal talks at his apartment. One of his friends

has called him the gentlest and tenderest of men. Another

told me on the telephone the other night that Arthur was the

kind of man who did good for people behind their backs.

I suppose, however, the thing that most of us remember

and that I, for one, treasure, was that he was just about

the gayest man I ever knew. He was not given to telling

stilted hackneyed jokes, but stories of actual events,

skillfully, embroidered to give a really humorous twist,

which left him with as well as his auditors in convulsions

of laughter.

So you see he was not a copy of quite anybody else—

he was his own authentic original.

I believe, on a purely subjective basis, that in the latter

years his comings and goings about the face of Europe

were not idle rambles. I know that his courage was limitless

and that he was a brave patriot. I held him high as a man.

I felt that he was trying to satisfy his "unappeasable hunger

for unattainable food." I hope that he found what he was

looking for.

Each of us will miss him in many different ways. I join

you in the solemn wish that he now rests in peace.

Twenty-Third Psalm

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

He leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul:

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death,

I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Kaddish

Yis-ga-dal v-yis-ka-dash sh-mai ra-bo, b-ol-mo dee-vro

chir-oo-sai, v-yamlich mal-choo-sai b-cha-yai-chon oov-

yomai-chon oo-ve-cha-yai d-chol-bais Yis-ro-ail, ba-a-go-lo

oo-vizman ko-reev; v'im-roo o-main.

Ye-hai sh-mai rab-bo m'vo-rach l'o-lam ool-ol-mai ol-

ma-yo

Yis-bo-rach v'yish-ta-bach, v'yis-po-ar, v'yis-rom-mam,

v'yis-na-sai, v'yis-ha-dar, v'yis-ah-lai v-yis-hal-lal sh-mai

d'kood-sho b'rich hoo,l'ai-lo min kol bir-cho-so v'shi-roso,

toosh-b'cho-so v'ne-cho-mo-so da-a-mi-ron b'ol-mo; v'im-

roo o'main

Ye-hai sh'lo-mo ra-bo min sh'ma-yo, v'cha-yim o'lai-noo

v'al kol Yis-ro-ail, v'im-roo-o-main.

Oseh sho-lom bim-ro-mov, hoo ya-a-seh sho-lom o-lai-noo

v'al kol Yis-ro-ail, v'im-roo o-main.

Arthur Wyndham Allen Cowan ne Abraham Cohen. Arthur's obituary appeared in the New York Times on 11/13/1964

Special to the New York Times

November 12, 1964

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 12—

Arthur W. A. Cowan a lawyer and

investment adviser was killed yesterday

in an automobile-truck collision near

Malaga, Spain according to word recieved

here by his family. Mr. Cowan was 59 years old.

Published November 13, 1964

Joan Mellen, in addition to being an excellent writer regarding Jim Garrison, and a host of other topics, also wrote

a very fascinating book about Lillian Hellman and Dashiel Hammett. One discovers that on November 19, 1963, Lillian and Arthur W A Cowan became executors of the estate of Dashiel Hammett.

Before Lillian Hellman's death Mary McCarthy appeared on the Dick Cavett show, and in quite specific terms, more or less called Hellman a xxxx, regarding information in her books, Hellman wanted to sue, but her attorney tried to convince her that she didn't stand a chance of winning. The case never went to court, and both McCarthy and Hellman died within a few years of each other.

I would be remiss in not wanting to ask Joan Mellen if she could offer any insights as to whether there was anything unusual about the circumstances of Arthur's death in Spain, or his "working for the government."

The only information, I could add regarding that statement in Pentimento is as follows: Thomas McBride, in Arthur's eulogy wrote...In the days when we both had offices in the Liberty

Trust Building, he had a combination recorder-radio

and we recorded the early wartime speeches of

Winston Churchill, punctuated with the squeals of

the trolley car wheels as they went up and down Arch

Street. Ever afterward, nobody but us could understand

what these strange noises were.

Robert.....

This would have been circa 1939-1945...The FBI

maintained offices in the Liberty Trust Building

as well...........

See

http://philadelphia.fbi.gov/history.htm

On a lark, I went through some of the FBI files on Lillian Hellman, there was one group of documents in the period ending around 1964, or later. What was noteworthy was that for the most part, none of Lillian Hellman's friends were mentioned, the documents were extensively redacted, and there was one document that indicated the FBI had access to a PCI, who, arguably knew her to some degree.......Allegations that Lillian was a Communist were pure crap, she was like a lot of people who were more to the left than the right in the 1930's-1940's who read Communist publications, but never paid dues for membership, while there were security risks and Communists in America in the pre- and post-Kennedy era, there numbers have been, alleged to been overstated by the FBI, by many writers.

I know Joan has taken a lot of flak, here on the Forum, but she is a class act, and someone should ask her if she could provide any information regarding the circumstances of Arthur's death or whether he did or didn't work for the government.......There is also a somewhat obscure angle in the geopolitical realm of the early 1960's and Spain, which is detailed extensively in a book called Homage to The Spanish Exiles by Nancy McDonald. ISBN 0-89885-325-7.

References to Arthur W A Cowan on the internet, about a year ago, seemed rather sparse, now with Google Books, Scholar, et cetera the situation has changed rather considerably. One discovers that Arthur Cowan was indeed an international barrister, with all the connotations that those words entail......Example, Arthur Cowan was indeed friends with Andre Maurois, a Frenchman of considerable historical significance.

Andre stated in his book, I Remember, I Remember, pages 276-291......”I had promised in the preceding year, to deliver the Lowell Lectures in Boston in October 1940.” And it was in America that he would meet Arthur W A Cowan. Although there are not a generous amount of sources of information about this meeting, Andre mentioned it in his book Memoirs 1885-1967 page 280. He wrote, “I spoke in favour of intervention in the universities, colleges, in legal groups such as The Brandeis Society in Philadelphia. There I made precious friendships. Arthur Cowan, a loyal and trustworthy friend and an ardent francophile, introduced me to the judges of the Supreme Court, who were his friends.”

The judges in the Supreme Court, in the fall of 1940 Maurois writes of would have been:

Chief Justice Charles Evan Hughes

Hugo L. Black

Felix Frankfurter

James Clark McReynolds

William O. Douglas

Frank Murphy

Stanley F. Reed

If it is true, as Hellman wrote that Arthur Cowan worked with Jean Monnet, then if I were him, going to a Spain that in 1964 had considerable anti-Semitic and pro-fascist elements there, I would have been a little paranoid too.

Last but not least, in today's political world the name Cowan in New York reveals via Arianna Huffington's post that they are virtually synonymous with funding Republican Party names such as Rudolph Gulliani and others, I would be shocked if some of the New York Cowan's of today are not at least, distant relatives of Arthur W A Cowan......

Sadie Raab appears to have been Arthur's sister, and her family might be a little more forthcoming than Arthur's.

Irrespective, of what the historical record indicates, I believe Arthur was a very great person, and I wish I could have met him.

Edited by Robert Howard
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  • 1 month later...
Robert, Many thanks for all you do, especially tracking down this rare gem.

I wonder exactly which US government agency Cowan worked for?

BK

Complete text to the Arthur Cowan Memorial Service book

1965 q. Mr. Edwin Wuisshene

Arthur W. A. Cowan. Born, Philadelphia, Pa., June 27, 1905.

Died, Malaga, Spain, November 10, 1964

Bibliography

University of Pennsylvania, A.B. . . . . . 1927

Harvard Law School, L.L.B . . . . . . . . . 1930

Harvard Law School, L.L.M . . . . . . . . . 1936

At the Memorial Services November 20, 1964 these words were spoken by his long-time friend, Thomas D.

McBride:

It seems fitting that I should read these words that I received from Lillian Hellman:

Dear Tom,

I wanted to be with you today and I couldn't be.

The reasons do not matter and would not have

mattered to Arthur. He knew that I loved him in

truth, And the truth was that he was like nobody

else who ever lived: full of contradictions and

crankiness; alway's brilliant and often illogical;

sometimes angry without justice; intolerant

about small things and charitable where it was

important.

You once told me that if you were in trouble in a

dark alley, Arthur was the man you wanted to have

behind you. Certainly he was brave and loyal.

But maybe the largest word in any language is

honor and he was a man of such high honor that

he never had to think about it or talk about it and

maybe never even knew that it was there.

Give him my love today and not the tears that are

on this paper. He was a gay man and would not

have wanted tears from any of us. All of us can hear

his laughter and that's the way he will want us

to remember him.

________________________________________________________________________________

__________________

To me has fallen the task of speaking at the burial of

my beloved friend, Arthur.

It was forty years ago that he used to come into the

boxing-room at the University of Pennsylvania,

put on the gloves, and with a total absence of style,

keep slugging away until something had to give. At

the end of the day he would tuck awawy his inevitable

book of French or English poetry tucked under his arm.

Afterwards he went to Cambridge, to Hawaii, and

back to Cambridge, during which time I never saw

nor heard from him. But when he came back to Phila-

delphia, as a lawyer, we used to lunch together

almost every day for some years.

We had a group of 7 or 8 and our discussions

roamed all over. It was during one of them that

I peevishly said to him, "If you're ever done in,

the crime won't be solved. There would be

too many suspects" Upon which, he snarled

back at me, "The trouble with you is, too many

people like you." I felt the sting of the admonition

and I hope in later years he had cause to modify it.

In the days when we both had offices in the Liberty

Trust Building, he had a combination recorder-radio

and we recorded the early wartime speeches of

Winston Churchill, punctuated with the squeals of

the trolley car wheels as they went up and down Arch

Street. Ever afterward, nobody but us could understand

what these strange noises were.

He had a temper, but it was in defending an indefensible

position that his wrath was truly choleric. And I think,

in a sense, his anger grew out of his complete dedication

to the truth as he saw it and the compelling forces of his duty

to tell it whether it constituted good manners or bad.

One of his most admirable qualities was his lack of

neutrality about anything. Even when he pretended great

indifference, he was involved. He was like Oliver St. John

Gogarty's Blackbird: "Filled with fight and self-reliance.

Warring with all evil chance."

Arthur's love of language was a passion. His appreciation

of the art of writing was accompanied by a deeply felt

emotional response. Together they produced the lively,

incisive, witty, brilliant companion who gave us so

many unforgettable hours.

His hatred of the second-rate in art, as in life, was

palpable, but he was also filled with compulsions I didn't

understand. He had within him a force that urged him on.

Joyce Kilmer wrote it and Arthur himself often quoted it:

"For nothing keeps a poet

In his high singing mood

Like unappeasable hunger

For unattainable food."

He took the Brandeis Lawyers Society and made it

broader than the mere worship of Justice Brandeis,

great as he was. He brought to its now-famous dinners,

speakers on art, literature, politics, law, philosophy and

preceded and followed the dinner meetings with the most

delightful informal talks at his apartment. One of his friends

has called him the gentlest and tenderest of men. Another

told me on the telephone the other night that Arthur was the

kind of man who did good for people behind their backs.

I suppose, however, the thing that most of us remember

and that I, for one, treasure, was that he was just about

the gayest man I ever knew. He was not given to telling

stilted hackneyed jokes, but stories of actual events,

skillfully, embroidered to give a really humorous twist,

which left him with as well as his auditors in convulsions

of laughter.

So you see he was not a copy of quite anybody else—

he was his own authentic original.

I believe, on a purely subjective basis, that in the latter

years his comings and goings about the face of Europe

were not idle rambles. I know that his courage was limitless

and that he was a brave patriot. I held him high as a man.

I felt that he was trying to satisfy his "unappeasable hunger

for unattainable food." I hope that he found what he was

looking for.

Each of us will miss him in many different ways. I join

you in the solemn wish that he now rests in peace.

Twenty-Third Psalm

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

He leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul:

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death,

I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Kaddish

Yis-ga-dal v-yis-ka-dash sh-mai ra-bo, b-ol-mo dee-vro

chir-oo-sai, v-yamlich mal-choo-sai b-cha-yai-chon oov-

yomai-chon oo-ve-cha-yai d-chol-bais Yis-ro-ail, ba-a-go-lo

oo-vizman ko-reev; v'im-roo o-main.

Ye-hai sh-mai rab-bo m'vo-rach l'o-lam ool-ol-mai ol-

ma-yo

Yis-bo-rach v'yish-ta-bach, v'yis-po-ar, v'yis-rom-mam,

v'yis-na-sai, v'yis-ha-dar, v'yis-ah-lai v-yis-hal-lal sh-mai

d'kood-sho b'rich hoo,l'ai-lo min kol bir-cho-so v'shi-roso,

toosh-b'cho-so v'ne-cho-mo-so da-a-mi-ron b'ol-mo; v'im-

roo o'main

Ye-hai sh'lo-mo ra-bo min sh'ma-yo, v'cha-yim o'lai-noo

v'al kol Yis-ro-ail, v'im-roo-o-main.

Oseh sho-lom bim-ro-mov, hoo ya-a-seh sho-lom o-lai-noo

v'al kol Yis-ro-ail, v'im-roo o-main.

Arthur Wyndham Allen Cowan ne Abraham Cohen. Arthur's obituary appeared in the New York Times on 11/13/1964

Special to the New York Times

November 12, 1964

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 12—

Arthur W. A. Cowan a lawyer and

investment adviser was killed yesterday

in an automobile-truck collision near

Malaga, Spain according to word recieved

here by his family. Mr. Cowan was 59 years old.

Published November 13, 1964

Joan Mellen, in addition to being an excellent writer regarding Jim Garrison, and a host of other topics, also wrote

a very fascinating book about Lillian Hellman and Dashiel Hammett. One discovers that on November 19, 1963, Lillian and Arthur W A Cowan became executors of the estate of Dashiel Hammett.

Before Lillian Hellman's death Mary McCarthy appeared on the Dick Cavett show, and in quite specific terms, more or less called Hellman a xxxx, regarding information in her books, Hellman wanted to sue, but her attorney tried to convince her that she didn't stand a chance of winning. The case never went to court, and both McCarthy and Hellman died within a few years of each other.

I would be remiss in not wanting to ask Joan Mellen if she could offer any insights as to whether there was anything unusual about the circumstances of Arthur's death in Spain, or his "working for the government."

The only information, I could add regarding that statement in Pentimento is as follows: Thomas McBride, in Arthur's eulogy wrote...In the days when we both had offices in the Liberty

Trust Building, he had a combination recorder-radio

and we recorded the early wartime speeches of

Winston Churchill, punctuated with the squeals of

the trolley car wheels as they went up and down Arch

Street. Ever afterward, nobody but us could understand

what these strange noises were.

Robert.....

This would have been circa 1939-1945...The FBI

maintained offices in the Liberty Trust Building

as well...........

See

http://philadelphia.fbi.gov/history.htm

On a lark, I went through some of the FBI files on Lillian Hellman, there was one group of documents in the period ending around 1964, or later. What was noteworthy was that for the most part, none of Lillian Hellman's friends were mentioned, the documents were extensively redacted, and there was one document that indicated the FBI had access to a PCI, who, arguably knew her to some degree.......Allegations that Lillian was a Communist were pure crap, she was like a lot of people who were more to the left than the right in the 1930's-1940's who read Communist publications, but never paid dues for membership, while there were security risks and Communists in America in the pre- and post-Kennedy era, there numbers have been, alleged to been overstated by the FBI, by many writers.

I know Joan has taken a lot of flak, here on the Forum, but she is a class act, and someone should ask her if she could provide any information regarding the circumstances of Arthur's death or whether he did or didn't work for the government.......There is also a somewhat obscure angle in the geopolitical realm of the early 1960's and Spain, which is detailed extensively in a book called Homage to The Spanish Exiles by Nancy McDonald. ISBN 0-89885-325-7.

References to Arthur W A Cowan on the internet, about a year ago, seemed rather sparse, now with Google Books, Scholar, et cetera the situation has changed rather considerably. One discovers that Arthur Cowan was indeed an international barrister, with all the connotations that those words entail......Example, Arthur Cowan was indeed friends with Andre Maurois, a Frenchman of considerable historical significance.

Andre stated in his book, I Remember, I Remember, pages 276-291......”I had promised in the preceding year, to deliver the Lowell Lectures in Boston in October 1940.” And it was in America that he would meet Arthur W A Cowan. Although there are not a generous amount of sources of information about this meeting, Andre mentioned it in his book Memoirs 1885-1967 page 280. He wrote, “I spoke in favour of intervention in the universities, colleges, in legal groups such as The Brandeis Society in Philadelphia. There I made precious friendships. Arthur Cowan, a loyal and trustworthy friend and an ardent francophile, introduced me to the judges of the Supreme Court, who were his friends.”

The judges in the Supreme Court, in the fall of 1940 Maurois writes of would have been:

Chief Justice Charles Evan Hughes

Hugo L. Black

Felix Frankfurter

James Clark McReynolds

William O. Douglas

Frank Murphy

Stanley F. Reed

If it is true, as Hellman wrote that Arthur Cowan worked with Jean Monnet, then if I were him, going to a Spain that in 1964 had considerable anti-Semitic and pro-fascist elements there, I would have been a little paranoid too.

Last but not least, in today's political world the name Cowan in New York reveals via Arianna Huffington's post that they are virtually synonymous with funding Republican Party names such as Rudolph Gulliani and others, I would be shocked if some of the New York Cowan's of today are not at least, distant relatives of Arthur W A Cowan......

Sadie Raab appears to have been Arthur's sister, and her family might be a little more forthcoming than Arthur's.

Irrespective, of what the historical record indicates, I believe Arthur was a very great person, and I wish I could have met him.

According to the Martindale/Hubbell Directory for the year 1960, Arthur W A Cowan was the Assistant Attorney General for the State of Philadelphia. The issues regarding Arthur Cowan and his life and times, would seem to center on the circumstances of some of the legal cases he was involved with as an attorney, which can be chronicled, the ultimate issue regarding his background in Philadelphia and any possible associations with areas peripheral to the assassination seem to include the manner and circumstances of his death in Malaga, Spain. The article in the New York Times mentioned the automobile accident there, as his vehicle colliding with a truck. Considering that he drove a Rolls Royce and had a chauffeur, it would be interesting to know whether he was driving or not, [which cannot be determined based on the limited information regarding the circumstances of his death] was possibly using a rental vehicle or had his Rolls-Royce brought over to Spain. Indeed, there are indications that some type of cloak of secrecy exists with regards to Arthur's death. And studying his life, to some degree, only confirms that fact.

As a curious aside to the whole issue, is the fact that Robert Morriss, who was the attorney for General Edwin Walker had done some investigatory work involving Harvard Law School in the early 1950's.

University, he was a member of the Brandeis Society, as Thomas D. McBride mentioned in his eulogy of Arthur.

In his book No Wonder We Are Losing, Morriss gave details of a particular episode regarding Harvard Law School in relation to the questioning, both Morriss and William Jenner conducted of Johnathan W. Lubell in 1953 regarding his alleged membership in the CP. According to the transcript of the questioning, Lubell was, at the time, a second year Law student at Harvard Law School, and both Johnathan and his brother were members of the editorial board of the Harvard Law School Record, an independent campus newspaper, that according to sources was independent of Harvard University itself.

Jonathan, according to, Morriss' book was the galley editor, while David was the associate editor.

Morriss asked Jonathan, if he had ever "organized students at Harvard University for the Communist Party."

Lubbell "took the Fifth" in response to several questions.

One of which was concerning a person named Mike Russo.

Morriss asked: "Have you organized students from Brandeis College into the Communist Party?"

Once again Jonathan exercised his right to invoke the Fifth Amendment....

The point of all of this is to illustrate that Arthur Cowan was very involved in issues pertaining to the essential framework of American Constitutional Law, in his lifetime and considering the fact that Robert Morriss was living in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, while Arthur was active as an attorney in Philadelphia, the question begs to be asked if the paths of Arthur W. A. Cowan and Robert Morriss might not have crossed at some point. While positing that even if that were the case, it does not imply any type of sinister conclusions.

Arthur, according to one book was very close to Tally Richards, who when they met, long before Arthur's death was a model, who later owned a Art Gallery in Taos, New Mexico. They met at a social function in the time period that Arthur's close friend

André Maurois from France was visiting America during World War II.

There is every reason to believe that Tally might have married Arthur had it not been for his tragic death in Malaga. Unfortunately, Tally Richards died, somewhat recently after moving from Taos, New Mexico to California.

I would have attempted to talk with her, if for no other reason than to tell her that from what I have learned about Arthur, I would have liked to have met him, as I feel that I have come to know some very good things about his life and times.

Much of the information contained in this post is taken from the Robert Morriss book

No Wonder We Are Losing 5th Edition - Published and Didstributed by the Bookmailer

Box 101 Murray Hill Station, New York 16, N.Y.

Edited by Robert Howard
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Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...
Robert, Many thanks for all you do, especially tracking down this rare gem.

I wonder exactly which US government agency Cowan worked for?

BK

Complete text to the Arthur Cowan Memorial Service book

1965 q. Mr. Edwin Wuisshene

Arthur W. A. Cowan. Born, Philadelphia, Pa., June 27, 1905.

Died, Malaga, Spain, November 10, 1964

Bibliography

University of Pennsylvania, A.B. . . . . . 1927

Harvard Law School, L.L.B . . . . . . . . . 1930

Harvard Law School, L.L.M . . . . . . . . . 1936

At the Memorial Services November 20, 1964 these words were spoken by his long-time friend, Thomas D.

McBride:

It seems fitting that I should read these words that I received from Lillian Hellman:

Dear Tom,

I wanted to be with you today and I couldn't be.

The reasons do not matter and would not have

mattered to Arthur. He knew that I loved him in

truth, And the truth was that he was like nobody

else who ever lived: full of contradictions and

crankiness; alway's brilliant and often illogical;

sometimes angry without justice; intolerant

about small things and charitable where it was

important.

You once told me that if you were in trouble in a

dark alley, Arthur was the man you wanted to have

behind you. Certainly he was brave and loyal.

But maybe the largest word in any language is

honor and he was a man of such high honor that

he never had to think about it or talk about it and

maybe never even knew that it was there.

Give him my love today and not the tears that are

on this paper. He was a gay man and would not

have wanted tears from any of us. All of us can hear

his laughter and that's the way he will want us

to remember him.

________________________________________________________________________________

__________________

To me has fallen the task of speaking at the burial of

my beloved friend, Arthur.

It was forty years ago that he used to come into the

boxing-room at the University of Pennsylvania,

put on the gloves, and with a total absence of style,

keep slugging away until something had to give. At

the end of the day he would tuck awawy his inevitable

book of French or English poetry tucked under his arm.

Afterwards he went to Cambridge, to Hawaii, and

back to Cambridge, during which time I never saw

nor heard from him. But when he came back to Phila-

delphia, as a lawyer, we used to lunch together

almost every day for some years.

We had a group of 7 or 8 and our discussions

roamed all over. It was during one of them that

I peevishly said to him, "If you're ever done in,

the crime won't be solved. There would be

too many suspects" Upon which, he snarled

back at me, "The trouble with you is, too many

people like you." I felt the sting of the admonition

and I hope in later years he had cause to modify it.

In the days when we both had offices in the Liberty

Trust Building, he had a combination recorder-radio

and we recorded the early wartime speeches of

Winston Churchill, punctuated with the squeals of

the trolley car wheels as they went up and down Arch

Street. Ever afterward, nobody but us could understand

what these strange noises were.

He had a temper, but it was in defending an indefensible

position that his wrath was truly choleric. And I think,

in a sense, his anger grew out of his complete dedication

to the truth as he saw it and the compelling forces of his duty

to tell it whether it constituted good manners or bad.

One of his most admirable qualities was his lack of

neutrality about anything. Even when he pretended great

indifference, he was involved. He was like Oliver St. John

Gogarty's Blackbird: "Filled with fight and self-reliance.

Warring with all evil chance."

Arthur's love of language was a passion. His appreciation

of the art of writing was accompanied by a deeply felt

emotional response. Together they produced the lively,

incisive, witty, brilliant companion who gave us so

many unforgettable hours.

His hatred of the second-rate in art, as in life, was

palpable, but he was also filled with compulsions I didn't

understand. He had within him a force that urged him on.

Joyce Kilmer wrote it and Arthur himself often quoted it:

"For nothing keeps a poet

In his high singing mood

Like unappeasable hunger

For unattainable food."

He took the Brandeis Lawyers Society and made it

broader than the mere worship of Justice Brandeis,

great as he was. He brought to its now-famous dinners,

speakers on art, literature, politics, law, philosophy and

preceded and followed the dinner meetings with the most

delightful informal talks at his apartment. One of his friends

has called him the gentlest and tenderest of men. Another

told me on the telephone the other night that Arthur was the

kind of man who did good for people behind their backs.

I suppose, however, the thing that most of us remember

and that I, for one, treasure, was that he was just about

the gayest man I ever knew. He was not given to telling

stilted hackneyed jokes, but stories of actual events,

skillfully, embroidered to give a really humorous twist,

which left him with as well as his auditors in convulsions

of laughter.

So you see he was not a copy of quite anybody else—

he was his own authentic original.

I believe, on a purely subjective basis, that in the latter

years his comings and goings about the face of Europe

were not idle rambles. I know that his courage was limitless

and that he was a brave patriot. I held him high as a man.

I felt that he was trying to satisfy his "unappeasable hunger

for unattainable food." I hope that he found what he was

looking for.

Each of us will miss him in many different ways. I join

you in the solemn wish that he now rests in peace.

Twenty-Third Psalm

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

He leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul:

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death,

I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Kaddish

Yis-ga-dal v-yis-ka-dash sh-mai ra-bo, b-ol-mo dee-vro

chir-oo-sai, v-yamlich mal-choo-sai b-cha-yai-chon oov-

yomai-chon oo-ve-cha-yai d-chol-bais Yis-ro-ail, ba-a-go-lo

oo-vizman ko-reev; v'im-roo o-main.

Ye-hai sh-mai rab-bo m'vo-rach l'o-lam ool-ol-mai ol-

ma-yo

Yis-bo-rach v'yish-ta-bach, v'yis-po-ar, v'yis-rom-mam,

v'yis-na-sai, v'yis-ha-dar, v'yis-ah-lai v-yis-hal-lal sh-mai

d'kood-sho b'rich hoo,l'ai-lo min kol bir-cho-so v'shi-roso,

toosh-b'cho-so v'ne-cho-mo-so da-a-mi-ron b'ol-mo; v'im-

roo o'main

Ye-hai sh'lo-mo ra-bo min sh'ma-yo, v'cha-yim o'lai-noo

v'al kol Yis-ro-ail, v'im-roo-o-main.

Oseh sho-lom bim-ro-mov, hoo ya-a-seh sho-lom o-lai-noo

v'al kol Yis-ro-ail, v'im-roo o-main.

Arthur Wyndham Allen Cowan ne Abraham Cohen. Arthur's obituary appeared in the New York Times on 11/13/1964

Special to the New York Times

November 12, 1964

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 12—

Arthur W. A. Cowan a lawyer and

investment adviser was killed yesterday

in an automobile-truck collision near

Malaga, Spain according to word recieved

here by his family. Mr. Cowan was 59 years old.

Published November 13, 1964

Joan Mellen, in addition to being an excellent writer regarding Jim Garrison, and a host of other topics, also wrote

a very fascinating book about Lillian Hellman and Dashiel Hammett. One discovers that on November 19, 1963, Lillian and Arthur W A Cowan became executors of the estate of Dashiel Hammett.

Before Lillian Hellman's death Mary McCarthy appeared on the Dick Cavett show, and in quite specific terms, more or less called Hellman a xxxx, regarding information in her books, Hellman wanted to sue, but her attorney tried to convince her that she didn't stand a chance of winning. The case never went to court, and both McCarthy and Hellman died within a few years of each other.

I would be remiss in not wanting to ask Joan Mellen if she could offer any insights as to whether there was anything unusual about the circumstances of Arthur's death in Spain, or his "working for the government."

The only information, I could add regarding that statement in Pentimento is as follows: Thomas McBride, in Arthur's eulogy wrote...In the days when we both had offices in the Liberty

Trust Building, he had a combination recorder-radio

and we recorded the early wartime speeches of

Winston Churchill, punctuated with the squeals of

the trolley car wheels as they went up and down Arch

Street. Ever afterward, nobody but us could understand

what these strange noises were.

Robert.....

This would have been circa 1939-1945...The FBI

maintained offices in the Liberty Trust Building

as well...........

See

http://philadelphia.fbi.gov/history.htm

On a lark, I went through some of the FBI files on Lillian Hellman, there was one group of documents in the period ending around 1964, or later. What was noteworthy was that for the most part, none of Lillian Hellman's friends were mentioned, the documents were extensively redacted, and there was one document that indicated the FBI had access to a PCI, who, arguably knew her to some degree.......Allegations that Lillian was a Communist were pure crap, she was like a lot of people who were more to the left than the right in the 1930's-1940's who read Communist publications, but never paid dues for membership, while there were security risks and Communists in America in the pre- and post-Kennedy era, there numbers have been, alleged to been overstated by the FBI, by many writers.

I know Joan has taken a lot of flak, here on the Forum, but she is a class act, and someone should ask her if she could provide any information regarding the circumstances of Arthur's death or whether he did or didn't work for the government.......There is also a somewhat obscure angle in the geopolitical realm of the early 1960's and Spain, which is detailed extensively in a book called Homage to The Spanish Exiles by Nancy McDonald. ISBN 0-89885-325-7.

References to Arthur W A Cowan on the internet, about a year ago, seemed rather sparse, now with Google Books, Scholar, et cetera the situation has changed rather considerably. One discovers that Arthur Cowan was indeed an international barrister, with all the connotations that those words entail......Example, Arthur Cowan was indeed friends with Andre Maurois, a Frenchman of considerable historical significance.

Andre stated in his book, I Remember, I Remember, pages 276-291......”I had promised in the preceding year, to deliver the Lowell Lectures in Boston in October 1940.” And it was in America that he would meet Arthur W A Cowan. Although there are not a generous amount of sources of information about this meeting, Andre mentioned it in his book Memoirs 1885-1967 page 280. He wrote, “I spoke in favour of intervention in the universities, colleges, in legal groups such as The Brandeis Society in Philadelphia. There I made precious friendships. Arthur Cowan, a loyal and trustworthy friend and an ardent francophile, introduced me to the judges of the Supreme Court, who were his friends.”

The judges in the Supreme Court, in the fall of 1940 Maurois writes of would have been:

Chief Justice Charles Evan Hughes

Hugo L. Black

Felix Frankfurter

James Clark McReynolds

William O. Douglas

Frank Murphy

Stanley F. Reed

If it is true, as Hellman wrote that Arthur Cowan worked with Jean Monnet, then if I were him, going to a Spain that in 1964 had considerable anti-Semitic and pro-fascist elements there, I would have been a little paranoid too.

Last but not least, in today's political world the name Cowan in New York reveals via Arianna Huffington's post that they are virtually synonymous with funding Republican Party names such as Rudolph Gulliani and others, I would be shocked if some of the New York Cowan's of today are not at least, distant relatives of Arthur W A Cowan......

Sadie Raab appears to have been Arthur's sister, and her family might be a little more forthcoming than Arthur's.

Irrespective, of what the historical record indicates, I believe Arthur was a very great person, and I wish I could have met him.

According to the Martindale/Hubbell Directory for the year 1960, Arthur W A Cowan was the Assistant Attorney General for the State of Philadelphia. The issues regarding Arthur Cowan and his life and times, would seem to center on the circumstances of some of the legal cases he was involved with as an attorney, which can be chronicled, the ultimate issue regarding his background in Philadelphia and any possible associations with areas peripheral to the assassination seem to include the manner and circumstances of his death in Malaga, Spain. The article in the New York Times mentioned the automobile accident there, as his vehicle colliding with a truck. Considering that he drove a Rolls Royce and had a chauffeur, it would be interesting to know whether he was driving or not, [which cannot be determined based on the limited information regarding the circumstances of his death] was possibly using a rental vehicle or had his Rolls-Royce brought over to Spain. Indeed, there are indications that some type of cloak of secrecy exists with regards to Arthur's death. And studying his life, to some degree, only confirms that fact.

As a curious aside to the whole issue, is the fact that Robert Morriss, who was the attorney for General Edwin Walker had done some investigatory work involving Harvard Law School in the early 1950's.

University, he was a member of the Brandeis Society, as Thomas D. McBride mentioned in his eulogy of Arthur.

In his book No Wonder We Are Losing, Morriss gave details of a particular episode regarding Harvard Law School in relation to the questioning, both Morriss and William Jenner conducted of Johnathan W. Lubell in 1953 regarding his alleged membership in the CP. According to the transcript of the questioning, Lubell was, at the time, a second year Law student at Harvard Law School, and both Johnathan and his brother were members of the editorial board of the Harvard Law School Record, an independent campus newspaper, that according to sources was independent of Harvard University itself.

Jonathan, according to, Morriss' book was the galley editor, while David was the associate editor.

Morriss asked Jonathan, if he had ever "organized students at Harvard University for the Communist Party."

Lubbell "took the Fifth" in response to several questions.

One of which was concerning a person named Mike Russo.

Morriss asked: "Have you organized students from Brandeis College into the Communist Party?"

Once again Jonathan exercised his right to invoke the Fifth Amendment....

The point of all of this is to illustrate that Arthur Cowan was very involved in issues pertaining to the essential framework of American Constitutional Law, in his lifetime and considering the fact that Robert Morriss was living in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, while Arthur was active as an attorney in Philadelphia, the question begs to be asked if the paths of Arthur W. A. Cowan and Robert Morriss might not have crossed at some point. While positing that even if that were the case, it does not imply any type of sinister conclusions.

Arthur, according to one book was very close to Tally Richards, who when they met, long before Arthur's death was a model, who later owned a Art Gallery in Taos, New Mexico. They met at a social function in the time period that Arthur's close friend

André Maurois from France was visiting America during World War II.

There is every reason to believe that Tally might have married Arthur had it not been for his tragic death in Malaga. Unfortunately, Tally Richards died, somewhat recently after moving from Taos, New Mexico to California.

I would have attempted to talk with her, if for no other reason than to tell her that from what I have learned about Arthur, I would have liked to have met him, as I feel that I have come to know some very good things about his life and times.

Much of the information contained in this post is taken from the Robert Morriss book

No Wonder We Are Losing 5th Edition - Published and Didstributed by the Bookmailer

Box 101 Murray Hill Station, New York 16, N.Y.

The first section of this post is from an old google groups post from years ago....

Does anyone know if the woman Julia in the book was a real person, or a

>composite character? My favorite character in the book was Tallulah with the

>cocaine eyedrops. Next is Arthur W.A. Cowan, a man too fantastic to make up.

The consensus seems to be that Hellman never had anything like this

experience (including the train trip), and that she based some of Julia's

resistance activity on Muriel Gardner, who survived the second world

war to write about her experiences in CODE NAME MARY, published before

PENTIMENTO. Gardner says she never met Hellman.

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.bo...rthur+W+A+Cowan

Here is the second section.....

Though Gardiner apparently wasn't the ...

... model for Lillian Hellman's ""Julia,"" she knows of no other American woman deeply involved in the Austrian anti-Nazi underground. And here, with restraint rather than drama, she chronicles her ... more » life before, during, and after that ""crowded hour"" in post-Anschluss Vienna. Gardiner fills in her well-to-do background, as an heiress to Morris/Swift meat-packing concern (her father was half-Jewish, but the family was firmly Protestant); she recalls her years at Wellesley, her guilts over wealth, her 1920s study/travel in Europe, her decision to undergo psychoanalysis in Vienna, a brief first marriage, beginning medical school in Vienna. But then, in 1934, the ascendancy of the Austrian fascists sparked her passion for political activism: ""I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I wanted to remain in Vienna doing all I could to keep the spark of democracy alive. . . ."" While continuing as mother, medical student, and analysand, then (plus a love affair with Stephen Spender), she found time and energy to follow socialist friends into the underground--helping to hide Jews and socialists, getting them money and false passports (smuggling papers across the border in a corset), acting as courier. And when she herself finally fled to Paris with her child and a new love, socialist leader Joseph Buttinger, Gardiner returned on courier expeditions. . . while fighting French/US bureaucracy to get Buttinger out of a French internment camp and on a boat to America. (They married, with a short update on the decades since in an epilogue.) Earnest and discreet rather than gripping or engaging--but of interest to students of underground-history, with a few curious sidelights on pre-war II psychoanalysis. « less

Kirkus Reviews Copyright © VNU Business Media, Inc.

http://books.google.com/books?id=TSQiAAAAC...=Code+Name+Mary

Edited by Robert Howard
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F. Frankfurter : http://www.mdah.state.ms.us/arlib/contents...72|5|1|1|28288| + a name search reveals 22 documents: MSC Files.

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