Marjorie Hillis Roulston

Background

Marjorie Hillis Roulston was born in Peoria, Illinois, one of three children of the Reverend Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis and Annie Patrick, author of The American Woman and Her Home. When Marjorie was nine, the Hillis family moved from Chicago to New York City where Dr. Hillis replaced Dr. Lyman Abbott at the Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn. The church had been made famous by the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher (it was built for him in 1847).

Education

Marjorie attended the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn and Miss Dana's School in Morristown, N. J.

Career

As a minister's daughter, Roulston enjoyed a secure and respectable life-style. She was aware of this special position in the community and tried to live up to its demands. Roulston recalled meeting a variety of people as a young girl--ranging from scholars to millionaires to the poor who needed money from the Deacon's Fund--because of her father's prominent position. She also spent a lot of time reading and traveling with her family.

Roulston joined Vogue magazine as a production editor in 1918, serving as executive editor from 1932 to 1936. When her father died in 1929 and her mother passed away the following year, Roulston, whose sister and brother were both married, felt a great sense of isolation and wanted to avoid becoming a spinster. Nevertheless, she decided to continue her career. She felt her position at Vogue contradicted the tenets held by her religious family. She once said her family often joked about the "sleek publication as a slightly ridiculous magazine full of illustrations of impossibly elongated ladies looking so chic that they resembled cartoons. " Her co-workers had "equally quaint notions about the clergy. "

In Edna Woolman Chase and Ilka Chase's Always in Vogue (1954) Roulston remembered early in her career when she was supervising a photo session with the great dancer Mordkin. The dancer preferred to pose only in a cotton figleaf. While Roulston was unruffled by this almost-nude display, her boyfriend thought otherwise. Upon seeing the half-nude Mordkin, he remarked, "I think you should remember, Marjorie, that you are a minister's daughter. " Nonetheless, Roulston thought that many of her co-workers were as interesting and respectable as members of the church community.

Roulston left Vogue in 1936 and began a writing career that lasted three decades. Her bestselling Live Alone and Like It (1936) provided innovative advice for single women. Roulston's passion for books was also evident in her work. In an article for Publisher's Weekly, Roulston extolled the bliss of reading in the bathtub: "The feel of water, pleasantly cool or deliciously warm, the smell of bath salts, pungent and luxurious; and the words on the printed page, exciting or stimulating or moving--where else can one have so many things all at once?" While her anecdotes were humorous and her prose lyrical, Roulston had experienced the loneliness and boredom of single life. Through her staunch independence and spirited personality, her life evolved to include her own apartment in New York City and a whirlwind of social engagements. Live Alone and Like It reflected Roulston's personal philosophy and ideas on how one should live.

Roulston was also a popular lecturer. Sponsored by Good Housekeeping and fashionable stores such as Bonwitt Teller and Woodward and Lothrop, Roulston promoted her books and spoke on such topics as "How to Be a Success in College. " She also wrote a monthly column entitled "On Petting" for Good Housekeeping. After her marriage in 1939, Marjorie Hillis Roulston became a pampered woman of society. She recalled how indulgent her life had become when over breakfast one morning her husband planned her limousine route for a shopping trip to Brooklyn. As their marriage progressed, Roulston moved away from her independent style: as she said, "I found it very pleasant indeed to be wrapped comfortably in cotton wool. " During this blissful period, she joined with her younger brother, Richard Dwight Hillis, and wrote A Church in History to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the Plymouth Congregational Church.

Her happiness ended in 1949 when her husband died. Roulston was forced to begin life anew, moving from her Long Island estate to Manhattan. She did not remarry, but continued writing engaging books. The first, after her husband's death, You Can Start All Over (1951) certainly reflected her own life experiences. In writing the book, Roulston hoped to convey once again her personal conviction "that when life brings a devastating change, leaving one alone and desolate, one can start all over. "

She spent her final years as an active volunteer for several organizations. A member of the Author's Guild since 1953, Roulston created and edited the Author's Guild Bulletin in 1956. With her witty literary style, she produced a newsletter that informed its members. She also served on the Guild Council with other famous writers, including Pearl S. Buck. Roulston was active at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, where she served as a member of the Board of Trustees from 1939 until 1967. She was also a member of the Brooklyn Institute. After a long illness, Roulston died in New York on November 8, 1971. She was eighty-one years old.

Achievements

• Roulston was notable for publishing the year's number eight nonfiction bestseller, "Live Alone and Like It", an advice book for young women on how to live independently. Her work "Orchids on Your Budge" became year's number five nonfiction bestseller.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Live Alone and Like It: The Classic Guide for the Single Woman

    ("Whether you view your one-woman ménage as Doom or Advent...)

  • Bubbly on Your Budget: Live Luxuriously with What You Have

    (Bubbly on Your Budget is an effervescent guide to living ...)

  • Solteira e Feliz (Em Portuguese do Brasil)

    ('Solteira & Feliz' é um guia para mulheres de todas as id...)

  • Stilvoll sparen
  • You Can Start All Over: A Guide For The Widow And Divorcee

  • book

  • Work Ends at Nightfall

Views

Quotations: Her amusing suggestions included: "Be a Communist, a stamp collector, or a Ladies' Aid worker if you must, but for heaven's sake, be something. "

Membership

Member of the Author's Guild

Member of the Brooklyn Institute

Member of the Board of Trustees of the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens

Connections

On August 1, 1939 Marjorie married Thomas Henry Roulston, a native Irishman who was president of Thomas Roulston Inc. , a New York City grocery store chain. The couple had no children.

Father:

Newell Dwight Hillis

Mother:

Annie Patrick

Spouse:

Thomas Henry Roulston

Brother:

Richard Dwight Hillis

References

• The Extra Woman: How Marjorie Hillis Led a Generation of Women to Live Alone and Like It