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Thomas Sugrue

The following article appeared in the Waterbury Republican on Sunday, February 26th, 2006

Writer's works spotlight Naugatuck

Sunday, February 26, 2006

BY WILL SISS

Copyright © 2006 Republican-American

NAUGATUCK -- By the time borough-born Thomas J. Sugrue died at the age of 45, he had written seven books, hosted a New York City radio show and explored the nation of Israel.

And he did it all in a wheelchair.

Despite these career highlights, Naugatuck's native son remains a relatively unknown figure.

Now that Sugrue's daughter has recently donated all of Sugrue's magazine work from the 1930s to the Howard Whittemore Memorial Library, reference librarian John Wiehn is hoping Sugrue's work will be discovered.

"I think he's really undiscovered," Wiehn said Wednesday. "His work could encourage young kids to see that someone from Naugatuck made such an impact in the wider world."

A mysterious joint disease left him unable to walk by the time he was 30, but the setback only seemed to fuel Sugrue's writing ability until his death in 1953.

From Catholicism to jazz, psychic power to the Rockettes, Sugrue's work contains a recognizable wit evident from his life in Naugatuck.

Sugrue was born in 1907, in a house on Ward Street, to mail carrier Michael Sugrue and his wife, Mary. His early memories were vivid, so much so that he based a 1940 autobiographical novel, "Such Is the Kingdom," about life in the borough's Irish section, recast as the fictional "Kelly Hill."

"From every door of the Goodland Rubber Boot and Shoe Company's factory they had poured at the blast of the whistle," he wrote. "They poured into Maple Street and separated... The Swedes and the Yankees went west and north, to Cracker Hill and Swede Hill. The Irish went south on Church Street and up Kelly Hill."

Sugrue's 68-year-old daughter, Patricia Sugrue Ketchum, said he used Naugatuck as a backdrop the way Willa Cather used the Midwest and New Mexico in her work.

"I think for kids growing up in Naugatuck today, where there are no more factories, are so different than that in early 20th century," said Ketchum who lives in Washington, D.C. "I think it's a very interesting piece of social history."

After graduating in 1924 from Naugatuck High School -- dancing was "his favorite pastime," according to a yearbook. Sugrue worked briefly as a teller for the Naugatuck Savings Bank, before graduating with bachelor's and master's degrees in English at Washington and Lee University in Virginia.

After a year as a reporter at the former Naugatuck Daily News, Sugrue was hired by the New York-based Herald Tribune newspaper. While at the Tribune he covered, among other stories, the funeral of Calvin Coolidge.

In 1934, Sugrue joined the staff of the American Magazine. The defunct New York-based monthly allowed Sugrue to bring creativity to his writing, from an interview with playwright Clifford Odets published in the form of a one-act play, to a letter addressed to his "unborn son."

That "son" turned out to be his only daughter, born to his wife Mary, in 1938.

Bound securely in eight blue volumes, copies of every American Magazine issue between 1934 and 1938 are available for view at the Whittemore Memorial Library's reference desk.

The four-year stint at the magazine ended when he caught a flu and developed arthritis in his legs.

The conditioned worsened rapidly, and the 30-year-old writer was soon left unable to walk or use his left arm. The paralysis had a "considerable" impact on his writing, Ketchum said.

"He probably would have kept on working at the American actively for quite a few more years," she said. "He was forced to concentrate on books."

After seeking relief for his condition in Florida, Sugrue met up with an old college friend, Hugh Lynn Cayce. Cayce's father was Edgar Cayce, a clairvoyant known for making accurate predictions while in a trance.

With Hugh Lynn Cayce as his nurse, Sugrue moved to Virginia Beach, Va., to be closer to the controversial healer. There, he wrote a biography of Edgar Cayce.

Using the same curiosity that fueled his journalism, Sugrue wrote two "as-told-to" books: one with Edmund W. Starling about his long career as a presidential bodyguard, and another with band leader Eddie Condon about the history of jazz.

With limited mobility and strength, Sugrue was forced to write only 1,000 words a day.

Part of his ability to find his stories depended on his charisma, Ketchum said.

"People were very drawn to him," she said. "He was warm and friendly, and he could get people to talk to him. He had that gift."

Former Whittemore Library reference librarian Barbara R. Reilly recalled meeting Sugrue as a 12-year-old when he visited her aunt.

"He was a fascinating person," said Reilly, 74. "He would talk and you would listen."

In 1947, Sugrue started a radio talk show, "Conversations at Eight" in which guests would join him at a Manhattan hotel room for light banter.

A Roman Catholic, Sugrue was interested in the topic of religion, and toured Israel in 1949, a year after it formed as a nation. He called Israel "humanity in microcosm," and wrote about his experience in "Watch for the Morning."

Of all of Sugrue's writing, his accounts of early Israel would be of the most interest to today's readers, Weihn said. Only his Edgar Cayce biography appears to be in print, he said. In 1953, Sugrue died in New York during a hip replacement meant to help him walk again.

Although her father's early death cut a promising career, Ketchum was happy to know his magazine articles were in Naugatuck.

"He's a hometown boy," Ketchum said. "And he loved that library."

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