Esperantist Couple Studied Law Together

That second period after "Mrs." isn't the only mistake

To anyone who has sweated their way to a law degree, it might be galling, that Edwin C. Reed and Ivy Kellerman-Reed took up law school as a recreation, obtaining their law degrees simultaneously on May 28, 1913. It would seem that after the end of the 1910 Universala Kongreso, and many months to come before their only child was conceived, they needed something to fill up the time. So they studied at the Washington College of Law.

In a way, the Reeds were the American Esperanto movement’s power couple. She was a noted linguist, and the author of one of the first American textbooks on Esperanto, A Complete Grammar of Esperanto (despite the title, it’s a textbook, not an analysis of the usage patterns of Esperanto), and an editor of Amerika Esperantisto. He was the secretary of the Esperanto Association for North America, but as the presidency was pretty much an ceremonial position during the first four years of the organization (during the presidencies of George Harvey and John Barrett), the secretary was responsible for the day-to-day operation of the EANA.

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The Other Kellerman

Karl F. Kellerman
Biologist and Esperantist

In his day, Edwin C. Reed was probably the busiest person in the United States Esperanto movement. Sure, in their turns George Harvey and John Barrett were president (first and second) of the Esperanto Association of North America, but during their tenures, Mr. Reed was the general secretary, the person who actually took care of EANA business. Let’s face it, Mr. Harvey and Mr. Barrett were titular presidents, hampered by their actual lack of commitment to the Esperanto movement.

At the same time, Mr. Reed’s wife, Dr. Ivy Kellerman-Reed[1] was the editor of Amerika Esperantisto, taking over those duties from the magazine’s founder, Arthur Baker, and making it wholly a magazine of the EANA.[2] But the Evening Star made clear that there was a Kellerman at the head of the District Federation of Esperantists. But not a Kellerman-Reed.

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Thousands Interested in Esperanto

Good news for Esperanto

A 1911 article by Frederic J. Haskin gives an estimate for the number of people in the United States interested in Esperanto. I’ve already hinted that it’s big, but it’s bigger than you might think. The years 1906 to 1914 seem to have been the glory days for Esperanto in the United States. When Haskin wrote his article, the 1910 Universala Kongreso was only a few months in the past.

While the Kongreso might have been small (while the organizers said that it might be the biggest ever, it was the smallest up to that time, and only the one held during WWI was smaller), it did spark some additional interest in Esperanto in the United States (which is one of the purposes of the Kongreso). In the months surrounding the event, newspapers had had a steady stream of articles about Esperanto.[1] And, as Haskin points out, there were some positive developments in the United States movement.

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Trouble for Reed in Esperanto-Land

Sinjoro Reed,
grava Esperantisto

While John Barrett may have been the titular head of the Esperanto movement in the United States, his greatest contribution seems to have been that he had Arnold Christen lecture his staff (on a Saturday!) about Esperanto. The actual day-to-day activities of the movement were handled by Edwin C. Reed, whose official position was that of secretary of the Esperanto Association of North America. You couldn’t really expect John Barrett to do these things; after all he was too busy to even learn Esperanto![1]

Judging from an article in the January 24, 1910 Washington Evening Star, there was a moment when Mr. Reed’s position as secretary seemed to be at risk, even though he had been the only person to have held the job, since he had taken the post at the founding of EANA. Prior to the founding of EANA, he had been on the board of the American Esperanto Association, the short-lived predecessor, which was described in Amerika Esperantisto as “not considered adequate or sufficiently democratic in its organization.”

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Mrs. Reed and the Unofficial French Delegates to Esperanto

That's "Dr. Reed" to you

In my previous post I wrote about the group of French Esperantists arriving in Washington, but due to the length of the article, I transcribed only about half of the it. The rest of the article has some interesting things, so now I’m returning to the August 12, 1910 Washington Herald.

Some of the article repeats the information that was widely reported elsewhere. The production of As You Like It in Esperanto was probably one of the most widely written about plays[1] ever to trod the boards (I mean seriously; the play was written about in newspapers all over the country for weeks). This was quite a triumph for the author. How many translations of plays out of English get national attention in the United States?

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