Frances Douglas papers

Author and translator Frances Douglas was born into a large family on 19 November 1870 in Milford, Connecticut; her parents were Alanson Delos Douglas and Betsy Ellen Miller. Frances attended only a few years of grammar school, and when she was sixteen, she joined her older sister Ida in Isleta, New Mexico. She began studying Spanish soon thereafter, at one point claiming that she knew "so many people who knew a little of several languages and decided [she] wanted to know all [she] could about one". Most of her knowledge of the language was self-taught, acquired from reading and from constant conversation with the Mexicans and Native Americans living in the area.

In 1891, Frances met author and activist Charles Fletcher Lummis in Isleta. Lummis was in Isleta working on behalf of the Pueblo Indians who were resisting government education program; he was also hiding from San Mateo bosses he had angered with his articles, and who had a reward on his head. [The two fell in love and had their first child, Turbesé, out of wedlock, as Lummis' divorce was not yet final.] In 1892-in a rather peculiar arrangement-Frances and Turbesé went to live with Lummis' soon-to-be-ex-wife, Dorothea, in Los Angeles until the divorce went through. The couple had four children: Dorothea (Turbesé, Lummis Fiske (1892- ), Amado Lummis (1894-1900), Jordan (Quimu) Lummis (1899- ), and Keith Lummis (1904- ). The couple had a troubled marriage, and in June 1909, Frances fled with Keith and Turbesé to San Francisco. While in San Francisco, she began a close friendship with mining engineer Courtenay DeKalb, whom she had known at least since 1908. In 1911, Frances moved to Tucson and filed for divorce from Charles Lummis, citing physical and emotional abuse and philandering. She married Courtenay DeKalb in 1913.

Frances Douglas began writing and translating Spanish authors in 1909, and published her first translation, of Vincente Blasco Ibanez's (translated title ), with A.C. McClurg in 1911. Her career spanned several decades, over the course of which she translated the works of many Spanish and Latin American authors including Concha Espina de Serna, José Maria Carretero, Guillermo Diaz-Caneja, Gregorio Martinez Sierra, Rafael Delgado, Pedro Juan Labarthe, José López-Portillo y Rojas, Emilia Pardo-Bazan, José Echegaray and Eduardo Zamacois. She is also credited with transcribing and translating the diary of Junipero Serra, which had been considered undecipherable. The diary was felt by many to be a fundamental document in California history. Several of her translations of Blasco Ibanez were made into motion pictures, including (1922) and (1921, based on ), both of which starred Rudolph Valentino.

With Courtenay DeKalb, Frances visited Spain twice in 1918 and 1926, on behalf of the United States Commerce Department. During these visits, in addition to her work for the government, she visited authors, organizations, and publishers. She also spent time with Concha Espina, with whom she had become close. In 1933, the University of Arizona honored Frances Douglas with an honorary doctor of letters, and in 1935 Frances Douglas became a charter member of the American Association of University Women. Between 1930-1941, she was the Associate Editor of , and remained on staff as a member of the magazine's advisory council following 1941.

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Frances continued to write and publish translations of her favorite authors, as well as short stories of her own. Additionally, she remained active giving speeches to various local and national women's and book clubs. In 1963, Frances Douglas and her daughter moved to San Diego, California. Prior to the move, she donated her library of 1100 books to the University of Arizona's Department of Romance Languages. Frances Douglas died in Berkeley, California in March 1969.