Bettina Riddle (February 14, 1874 – January 26, 1957), also known as Betsey Riddle, and later as Baroness von Hutten, was an American-born novelist, specializing in historical fiction. As an American in England during World War I, she was arrested and fined as an enemy alien, because she had a German ex-husband.
Early life and family Elizabeth Riddle was born in Erie, Pennsylvania,John Huston Finley and William Peterson, ed., Nelson's Perpetual Loose-Leaf Encyclopedia (Thomas Nelson 1920): 460. the daughter of John Simms Riddle, a lawyer and state legislator, and Kate Howard Riddle."The Baroness Bettina von Hutten" The Bookseller, Newsdealer, and Stationer (January 1, 1916): 15. Her grandfather was Congressman William Alanson Howard, and her brother was a medical writer, Hugh Howard Riddle. Bettina's grandmother Mary Dickinson Riddle was a cousin of artist Mary Cassatt."Lady at the Tea Table" (1883).Mary Cassatt: A Life (Yale University Press 1994): 165. Among her uncles were ambassadors Thomas A. Scott and Thomas J. O'Brien."Baron Divorces American Wife" Oregon Daily Journal (May 8, 1909): 1. via Newspapers.com
She called herself "Pam" for a time, after the most popular of her fiction-characters, and kept a pet monkey like the fictional Pam."Online Books by Betsey Riddle Hutten zum Stolzenberg", Online Books page."'Pam', Author of 'Pam', has been Divorced" St. Louis Post-Dispatch (May 8, 1909): 3. via Newspapers.com In 1910 she tried acting."Authoress of 'Pam' in Debut on Amateur Stage" Los Angeles Times (January 16, 1910): 112. via Newspapers.com
Personal life She married Friedrich Karl August, the Baron von Hutten zum Stolzenberg, in 1897, in Florence. They had two children, Karl (1898-1971) and Katharina (1902-1975). They divorced "by mutual consent" in 1909,"Travel Split Von Huttens" New York Times (May 23, 1909): C1. amidst rumors of her infatuation with Italian tenor Francesco Guardabassi.
She soon had two more children with actor Henry Ainley, actor Richard Ainley (1910-1967) and Henrietta Riddle (b. 1913). Henrietta was briefly engaged to Alistair Cooke in 1932.Nick Clarke, Alistair Cooke: A Biography (Arcade Publishing 1999): 54.
Bettina von Hutten lived in England but wintered in Rome."Literary Baroness in Rome" Washington Post (March 13, 1910): 8. via Newspapers.com During World War I she lived under travel restrictions as an "enemy alien" in England, because of her German ex-husband. She was arrested and fined for breaking these restrictions."Baroness von Hutten Fined" Feilding Star (September 26, 1916): 2. In 1921 she was badly injured in a car accident near Danzig; in 1925, she was in bankruptcy."Baroness von Hutten Hurt in Runaway" New York Times (October 15, 1921)."Order Against Baroness von Hutten" New York Times (November 11, 1925): 2. She regained her American citizenship in 1938, and lived in California during World War II."Baroness von Hutten; Novelist Dies in London at 83--Wrote 'Pam' Stories" New York Times (January 29, 1957): 31. She converted to Roman Catholicism late in life,Rosa Ainley, 2 Ennerdale Drive: Unauthorized Biography (John Hunt Publishing 2011): 109-113. and died in 1957, in London, aged 83 years.
Her granddaughter Katrine von Hutten (1944-2013) was a German writer and translator.
Career Novels by Betsey Riddle include: Miss Carmichael's Conscience (1898) Marr'd in Making (1900) Our Lady of the Beeches (1902) Violett (1904) Araby (1904) Pam (1905) Pam Decides (1906) What Became of Pam (1906) The One Way Out (1906) He and Hecuba (1906) Kingsmead, a Novel (1909) The Halo (1911) Beechy: or, The Lordship of Love (1909) The Green Patch (1911) Sharrow (1912) Maria (1914) Helping Hersey (1914) Bird's Fountain (1915) Mag Pye (1917) The Bag of Saffron (1918) Happy House (1919) Mother-in-Law (1922) Mice for Amusement: A Novel (1934) Lives of a Woman (1935, adapted for the stage as There Was an Old Woman in 1938) Die She Must (1936) Youth Without Glory (1938) What Happened is This (1939). Further: Julia Candy, and Other Stories Flies Eddy and Édouard The Curate's Egg.
References
External links
The National Portrait Gallery (London) has several portraits of Bettina Riddle, photographed in 1935 by Howard Coster