A Courtship by Letter: Hilaire Belloc and Elodie Hogan

Letters from the Elodie Belloc Correspondence Collection, MS2007-005, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

“….So again good night – if I could follow the night round her long whirl around the bend of the earth – at last I should come to you….”

– Hilaire Belloc to Elodie Hogan, August 6, 1890.

Two young sweethearts, at the turn of the nineteenth century, separated by immense distance (and having no internet or telephone to unite them), kindled their romance through love letters and long journeys.

Elodie Agnes Hogan was born in 1868, the daughter of Irish immigrant parents. She was raised in Napa, California by her widowed mother who was the proprietor of a hotel there. As a young woman, Elodie considered joining a religious order, but also aspired to a career in journalism. Photograph from the Hilary A. Belloc Collection, MS1998-004, Box 2,Folder 22, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

American Elodie Hogan (1868 – 1914), age 22, met Hilaire Belloc (1870 – 1953), two years her junior, in London while touring Europe with her mother and elder sister in the summer of 1890. They were introduced there, at the Belloc family home, by mutual friends. By August, though already in love, Elodie was on her way back to her home in California. The couple began exchanging letters, and it was not long before Hilaire began a journey across ocean and continent to be with her again. Short of funds for such a trip, he traveled across the United States by train, paying his way at times by offering sketches in exchange for room and board.  Family objections and practical considerations kept the two from marrying immediately, but although Hilaire returned to Europe, they wrote to one another throughout the intervening years. He returned to California in 1896 and the couple wed in June. The Bellocs had five children – three sons and two daughters. In 1913 Elodie became ill with what was probably cancer, and she died at the family home, King’s Land, in 1914. When she died, Hilaire, heartbroken, closed the door to her room and it was never again opened in his lifetime.

English writer Joseph Hilaire Peter Belloc was born in Celle Saint-Cloud, France in 1870. His mother was an English citizen, and the family moved to England after Belloc’s father died. Belloc attended the Oratory School under John Henry Cardinal Newman from 1880-1887. After Belloc finished school, he returned to France to complete his compulsory military service. He attended Balliol College, Oxford. In 1896 he completed his degree with first class honors in history. Photograph from the Hilary A. Belloc Collection, MS1998-004 Box 2,Folder 21, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

The correspondence of Elodie and Hilaire Belloc is part of the Elodie Belloc Correspondence collection (MS2007-005).  It is one of several Belloc family collections at the Burns Library.

• Shelley Barber, Library/Archives Assistant, Burns Library, shelley.barber@bc.edu

• Further Resources on the Bellocs include:

Hilaire Belloc’s Library – Belloc’s books from his house, King’s Land, available in the Burns Library Reading Room

Elodie Belloc Correspondence collection- available on the Burns Library’s Flickr photostream and in the Burns Library Reading Room

Works by Hilaire Belloc - available online via Project Gutenburg

Cautionary Tales – an earlier John J. Burns Library blog post highlighting Belloc’s well-known children’s book