Professor Butter Beard and Reginald Eves’ “Leslie Howard”
Scarlett: “But, Ashley, what are you afraid of?'
Ashley: “Oh, nameless things. Things which sound very silly when they are put into words. Mostly of having life suddenly become too real, of being brought into personal, too personal, contact with some of the simple facts of life. It isn't that I mind splitting logs here in the mud, but I do mind what it stands for. I do mind, very much, the loss of the beauty of the old life I loved. Scarlett, before the war, life was beautiful. There was a glamor to it, a perfection and a completeness and a symmetry to it like Grecian art. Maybe it wasn't so to everyone. I know that now. But to me, living at Twelve Oaks, there was a real beauty to living. I belonged in that life. I was a part of it. And now it is gone, and I am out of place in this new life, and I am afraid. Now, I know that in the old days it was a shadow show I watched. I avoided everything which was not shadowy, people and situations which were too real, too vital. I resented their intrusion.” ― Margaret Mitchell, “Gone with the Wind”
Oh Ashley, your burden is heavy, but your gentlemanly pride remains steadfast. You, and Mr. Leslie Howard, were my first gentlemen icons. I still have my original paperback of “Gone With The Wind,” worn and bruised with re-reading. A fading paper dream box containing visions spiced with out-loud laughter, dampened eyes and soulful longing. As my journey has progressed, others have joined the list as revered gentlemen inspirations: my Buddhist mentor Rick, Philippe de Montebello, Nicholas Napoli and Barack Obama. But it is you that first nudged me on the unsteady path towards becoming a “true gentleman.”
Blond, dreamy, and honorable, Ashley Wilkes is the perfect foil to Rhett Butler’s dark, realistic opportunism. Scarlett truly believes that Ashley is her intended, but he physically shakes her dream by marrying his cousin Melanie Hamilton, thus setting in motion Scarlett’s central conflict. Ashley is the ideal prewar Southern gentleman: he excels at hunting and riding, takes pleasure in the arts, and comes from an excellent family. Scarlett’s idealization of Ashley slowly fades as time goes on, and she finally sees that the Ashley she loves is not a real man, but a man embellished and adorned by her imagination. Yet he will forever remain the perfect representation of the “Old South” and the wisteria-draped southern nostalgia for the prewar days.
Margaret Mitchell’s Ashley Wilkes was superbly embodied by the actor Leslie Howard in the 1939 movie extravaganza directed by Victor Fleming (and two others). Biographers have noted that Howard grew increasingly uncomfortable with Hollywood and returned home to England to star in a number of Second World War films including “49th Parallel,” “Pimpernel Smith,” and the “First of the Few” (known in the U.S. as “Spitfire”), the latter two of which he also directed and co-produced. During the war he was active in anti-Nazi propaganda and reputedly involved with British or Allied Intelligence, which scholars believe may have led to his death in 1943 when an airliner on which he was a passenger was shot down over the Bay of Biscay, sparking conspiracy theories regarding his death.
A long-standing hypothesis states that the Germans believed that Winston Churchill was on board the flight. Churchill, in his autobiography, expressed sorrow that a mistake about his activities might have cost Howard his life. The BBC television series “Churchill’s Bodyguard” broadcast in 2006 suggested that German intelligence agents had learned of Churchill’s proposed departure and route. Churchill’s bodyguard, Detective Inspector Walter H. Thompson later wrote that Churchill, at times, seemed clairvoyant about threats to his safety, and, acting on a premonition, changed his departure to the following day.
I believe that the painter Reginald G. Eves perfectly captured the gentlemanly soul of Leslie Howard in his 1937 portrait. Eves was born in 1876, the son of William Henry Eves, a London JP, and was educated at University College School and later at the Slade School of Fine Art, where he studied under Alphonse Legros, Frederick Brown and Henry Tonks. In 1901, he had his first work shown at the Royal Academy and then went on to establish a successful society portrait practice in London with clients including Thomas Hardy, Sir Ernest Shackleton, George VI and Sir Max Beerbohm. When the Second World War broke out, Eves was among the first artists offered a full-time, salaried contract by the War Artists' Advisory Committee. He was sent to France in 1940 with the British Expeditionary Force and worked out of a tiny wartime portrait studio based at a hotel in Arras. He unfortunately died shortly thereafter in June of 1941, but today, his works complete essential portions of the collections of both the Tate and the National Portrait Gallery.
While musing on Ashley Wilkes and Leslie Howard, my mind wandered to the first summer barbeque at “Twelve Oaks” where Scarlett flirted in her now famous, green-sprigged muslin dress surrounded by eligible gentlemen suiters competing to offer the best of southern picnic fare in return for a promising kiss. Charles Hamilton tempted Scarlett with a slice of meringue cake and his wagging puppy dog eyes, eventually winning her hand in that first doomed marriage. I’ve reinterpreted that slice of heaven creating a pound cake stuffed with fragrant peaches, warming cardamon and toasted almonds. Top it with a spoonful of homemade peach jam and a dollop of sweetened whipped cream, and, if the stars align, Ashely Wilkes may smile and politely offer you his hand leading you on his arm to join the first dance.
Peach Poundcake with Cardamon and Toasted Almonds
Three Loaf Cakes
1 cup sliced almonds, toasted and cooled (keep another ¼ cup handy, untoasted, to top loaves before baking)
16 ounces peach slices (I use frozen peach slices – they are already peeled and so easy to cut into small pieces while frozen)
12 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups granulated sugar (plus 3 tsp to sprinkle over loaves before baking – 1 tsp each)
4 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup almond flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill)
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 Tbsp fine sea salt
2 Tbsp ground cardamon
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
6 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla paste
1 ½ cups buttermilk
1) Toast the one cup almond slices in a non-stick skillet, shaking often, and then cool them completely.
2) Cut the frozen peach slices into 1/2” chunks and let drain in a colander over a bowl.
3) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray three loaf pans with cooking spray and line with parchment leaving a one-inch overhang on all sides.
4) In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, baking powder, salt, cardamon and freshly grated nutmeg.
5) Cream the butter and sugar in a standing mixer 1-2 minutes until butter is light and fluffy. Reduce the speed to low and add the eggs, 1 egg at a time.
6) Add the vanilla to the creamed butter/sugar and mix to combine.
7) On low, add 1/3 of the dry mix, then half of the buttermilk, 1/3 of the dry mix, remaining buttermilk and finish with the final 1/3 of the dry mix.
8) Add the cooled almond slices and mix for 30 seconds to slightly break down the almonds.
9) Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the peaches with a spatula.
10) Divide the batter between the three pans. Sprinkle the ¼ cup untoasted almond slices over the batter and then sprinkle one tsp granulated sugar over each loaf.
11) Bake the cakes until a wooden skewer comes out clean – roughly 60 minutes.
12) Cool the loaves in their pans on a wire rack.
Publicity Still, “Gone With The Wind,” 1939, directed by Victor Fleming, produced by David O. Selznick. Publicity still of Leslie Howard.
Publicity Still, “Gone With The Wind,” 1939, directed by Victor Fleming, produced by David O. Selznick. Publicity still of Vivien Leigh and Rand Brooks.
