Theos-Talk Archives (April 1996 Message tl00334)

Chuck,
In your original post you said:

>Blavatsky herself was anything but moral in the eyes of her contemporaries
>and  Col. Olcott left his family to run off with her.

I then asked you:

>What are your sources for this statement?

>Historical documents, etc.?

And you Chuck replied to  my questions with:

>Daniel,
>Any good biography of the Colonel tells that he left his wife and only saw
>her again once in 1892.

Chuck, in your original postings, you said:  " Col. Olcott left his family
to run off with her."  And then in your latest you say:  "Colonel tells that
he left his wife and only saw
her again once in 1892."

Now from these two sentences of yours  one might think that you are saying
that Olcott left his wife and children to run off with HPB.  And since you
were commenting on HPB's morals or lack of morals when you made this
statement, one might also somehow connect all of this together to reflect
badly on Olcott as well as HPB.

But Chuck, I ask:  When did Olcott leave his family to run off with HPB?
And what was their destination?

Gertrude Marvin Williams in her 1946 biography on HPB writes:

"The Colonel...had previously supported his family in modest comfort.  When he
abandoned his wife to live openly with another woman [HPB], his insistence
on a Platonic relationship was not convincing to Mrs. Olcott."  p. 106.

But it is simply not true that Olcott "abandoned his wife" for HPB.

To begin with, Mary Olcott divorced Henry in Dec. 1874.  Furthermore, Mrs.
Olcott testified that "I have not lived with the defendant as his wife since
the 1st of January, 1873...." (See *Blavatsky and Her Teachers* by Jean
Overton Fuller.)   And, Chuck, I assume you know that Olcott did not meet
HPB until  Oct. 14, 1874 at the Eddys' Farm, Chittenden, Vermont.  Even
Marion Meade (who is not always the most accurate writer) in her biography
of HPB correctly comments that at the time of his divorce, HPB and Olcott
were "casual acquaintances".  (p. 134)

There's more to all of this but I will stop here.

Daniel