Random Reference: Esperanto in Progressive Era Virginia

In February 1909, an unusual death notice appeared in a monthly magazine. Thirty-six-year-old Elizabeth Neely Warrington of Norfolk, Virginia, had died a few months earlier, the result of complications following a surgery. Unlike the funeral announcement that appeared in Virginia newspapers, this death notice wasn’t written in English, nor in any language commonly spoken in Virginia. Amerika Esperantisto reported Warrington’s death in an “artificial language,” Esperanto.

Translated with machine assistance, the notice reads, “All Esperantists will learn with sorrow about the unfortunate death of Mrs. A P Warrington, of Norfolk, Va. Mrs. Warrington was very interested in our cause and we lost an enthusiastic colleague. Those who attended the Congress last August in Chautauqua remember Mrs. Warrington and her enthusiasm for Esperanto. Her husband is one of the most energetic Esperantists in the state of Virginia.”

The Esperanto language was indeed a “cause” as well as a language community. Esperanto was developed in 1887 by L.L. Zamenhof, a polyglot Jewish eye doctor born in what is now Poland. At a young age, Zamenhof observed how language differences exacerbated ethnic divisions in Europe. Zamenhof believed the invention of a new lingua franca, a common language that was culturally and politically neutral, would advance the cause of world peace.

By the early years of the twentieth century, Esperanto was becoming popular in the United States. Virginia newspapers wrote with interest about the new language; an 7 August 1910 Newport News Daily Press article reported on the World Esperanto Congress in Washington DC, which was accompanied by religious services and even a baseball game conducted in Esperanto. News outlets also poked gentle fun at Esperanto. A poem reproduced in the 15 June 1912 Richmond Times Dispatch pointed out a seeming flaw in a language constructed for world peace: “[I]n Esperanto one can’t swear.”

Born in Accomack County, Virginia, and married at twenty, Elizabeth Neely Warrington appears to have left behind relatively little documentation of her involvement in the Esperanto movement. Her death notice indicates that she attended a 1908 congress of Esperanto enthusiasts in Chautauqua, New York. Also in 1908, Elizabeth Warrington took the time to write into Amerika Esperantisto to voice opposition to a change to the magazine’s format. Later that year, she was listed as a candidate for membership in the Esperanto Association of North America.

Norfolk-area newspapers document other aspects of Elizabeth Warrington’s public life. Daughter of the former Commonwealth’s Attorney of Accomack County, Warrington was a well-traveled society woman who was active in musical performances, social events, and charity benefits. Warrington’s prominence in these spheres hint that, while Esperanto was a language invented to bridge cultural divides, formal involvement in the Esperanto community may have been more accessible to individuals with the time, financial resources, and social capital to participate in local and national associations.

Elizabeth Neely Warrington’s husband is a considerably better-documented figure. A lawyer who worked for the same firm as his wife’s father, Albert P. Warrington was an active Theosophist. Theosophy was a popular esoteric religious movement established in the 1870s. While a New Age religion might not seem relevant to a language movement, Theosophy’s teachings on the “essential unity of all that is” and a “brotherhood among men” reveal a strain of late-nineteenth century idealism similar to Esperanto. The same summer that the Warringtons attended the Esperanto Congress in Chautauqua, Albert Warrington published an article in the American Theosophist titled “Brotherhood Through Language,” which argued that both Esperanto and Theosophy had roles to play in “stimulating the manifestation of Universal Brotherhood among the world’s peoples.”

Elizabeth and Albert had one daughter, Neely Warrington. Following Elizabeth’s early death, Albert and his daughter moved to Hollywood, California, where he would establish Krotona, a prominent religious retreat for Theosophists. The publication Krotona of Old Hollywood cites his grief following Elizabeth Warrington’s death as a motivation for his departure to California.

Esperanto no longer attracts the popular attention it did in the early twentieth century, but the language is still spoken by at least 60,000 people worldwide and has appeared in books, films, and scientific papers. Virginians curious about this historically significant language can access lessons through the Transparent Languages website and app, available to Virginia public library cardholders.