The Item of the Month
Contributed by Patrick J. Walsh

By the time Robinson Jeffers moved to Carmel-by-the-Sea in 1914, the seaside village was already well known as a Bohemian getaway from modern life. This was no accident. Frank Powers, a executive of the Carmel Development Company and a member of the San Francisco Bohemian Club, had sought out local artists and writers, luring them to the new development some 100 miles to the south. One of the first Bohemians to relocate from the Bay Area was the poet George Sterling, a writer who would later be an early champion of Jeffers' work. Sterling was in the development business in San Francisco but sought an escape from the swiftly modernizing city. He moved to Carmel in 1905 and was soon
urging other Bohemian figures to follow him. As bait to people including Ambrose Bierce, Sterling proffered the discounted real estate offered to those of "artistic temperament" by the Carmel Development Company.

Although Sterling failed to bring Bierce and best friend Jack London to Carmel for anything more than visits, he did manage to lead a number of Bohemians there, including writers Mary Austin and Jimmy Hopper, and the photographer Arnold Genthe. Other early residents and long-term visitors included Yale dropout Sinclair "Red" Lewis and reformer Upton Sinclair. Both the Carmel Development Company and the Carmel Bohemians benefited from what quickly became a symbiotic relationship. The fame and sometimes scandalous behavior of the local Bohemians made the town widely known while the Bohemian's careers profited from their being known as "Carmelites." This mutually beneficial arrangement led local businesspeople to publicize quirky behavior rather than to criticize it, as in the case of Mary Austin who sometimes "dressed like an Indian" and did her writing in a tree house.

When Jeffers arrived he chose to live outside the city limits, a short walk to the south of town. He may not have received any special deals on his land, but by setting up shop in Carmel he too enjoyed the fruits of being associated with its Bohemian colony.