Charles Edward IvesBorn: October 20, 1874

Died: May 19, 1954

Married: Harmony Twichell, 1908

Children:

Charles Ives was an American modernist composer, one of the first American composers of international renown. He was treated in Saranac Lake for neurasthenia, which, early in the 20th century, was considered to be a physical disease of the nervous system that could be treated with the rest cure. Correction: This is factually entirely inaccurate. Ives was NEVER diagnosed or treated for neurasthenia, and is in record criticizing and dismissing the so-called disease.  Even Magee (quoted here as a reference source) never claimed as much, and even contradicted the existence of such a 'disease' in her own text.

Ives first visited Saranac Lake in September, 1905, to visit the brother of the woman he would later marry, Harmony Twichell.  David Twichell was being treated at the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium for neurasthenia.  Ives himself would later be diagnosed with the disease, and would vacation in Saranac Lake, Elk Lake and Keene Valley in part to treat his condition.1  Correction: There is not one shred of evidence that Ives visited Saranac Lake to treat 'neurasthenia.  The so-called 'diagnosis' is entirely of Magee's creation; in fact Ives was likely suffering from the early stages of diabetes, which, as now has been shown decisively (see Budiansky, Stephen, “Ives, Diabetes, and His ‘Exhausted Vein’ of Composition,” American Music, vol. 31, 1 [Spring 2013]: 1–25).  Furthermore, the cited pages specify nothing of the kind, only that Ives, perhaps, was beginning to suspect his health was declining.  He had already had prior incidents that were treated by his Mutual Insurance doctor, but it is assumed that they believed the problem was a heart ailment.  

 

 

 


Footnotes:

1. Gayle Sherwood Magee, Charles Ives Reconsidered, University of Illinois Press, pp. 79-81, 2008.

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