ABSTRACT

"Thorstein Veblen called the Bevans' apartment 'the comer of indecision' because they were always trying to make up their minds what to do", a close Chicago associate said. Thorstein and Babe and her children may have spent part of the summers of 1905 and 1906 camping out on Washington Island with Thorstein before he left for California. Babe's daughter Becky Veblen Meyers wrote that they were hiding out on the island during two or three summers "where Ellen couldn't track us down". Veblen was aware of the potential harm an alliance outside his marriage could do to him at Stanford University and must have come belatedly to a decision to observe the proprieties—at least outwardly. When he bid Babe farewell in the summer of 1906, "forsaking all others" seemed to include Babe at this point. The growing involvement of Thorstein and Babe was somewhat strained, as Ellen Veblen was certainly aware of her husband's interest in the younger woman.