Henry Hermann Mumm Thornton

Henry Hermann Mumm Thornton (born 1932) was a prominent banker and businessman whose young adulthood was detailed in the journals of his stepfather Edmund Wilson, the noted essayist and scholar [Wilson, Edmund. The Fifties. Leon Edel (editor).] . Henry was also mentioned frequently in the correspondence of Wilson with other literary notables, such as Vladimir Nabokov [Wilson Edmund and Simon Karlinsky. Dear Bunny, Dear Volodya: The Nabokov-Wilson Letters, 1940-1971. University of California Press, 2001.] .

Edmund Wilson's Journals

In the journals, Wilson wrote a detailed, uncensored account, including rather graphic descriptions of his sex life with Elena Mumm. Wilson did not spare Henry, of whom he was reportedly very fond. Wilson reflected on Henry’s difficulty in providing adequate income to support a ‘society’ family, Henry’s wife Daphne’s anti-Semitism, and the strained relationship of Elena and Daphne [Wilson, Edmund. The Sixties: The Last Journal, 1960-1972. Lewis Dabney (editor)] . How much of this was Wilson’s perception of reality or reality has never been determined; however, it should be noted that Elena Mumm Thornton Wilson edited the journals before publication [See Obituary for Elena Wilson: New York Times: July 29, 1979] .

A copy of Henry H.M. Thornton’s birth certificate and Thornton family correspondence are stored with the Elena Wilson Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale Collection of American Literature, Yale University.

Education/ Career

After graduating from St. Paul's School (Concord, NH) preparatory school and serving two years in the US Armed Forces, Henry H.M. Thornton entered Columbia University, graduating in 1958. He spent the next 30 years in banking: By the mid-1980s, Henry was senior vice president of First Jersey National Bank, Jersey City, New Jersey.

Family

Henry H.M. Thornton was the son of James Worth Thornton and Elena Mumm von Schwarzenstein, a German-Russian aristocrat and partial heir to the Mumm champagne fortune. Henry was the grandson of Sir Henry Worth Thornton. In 1946 James and Elena divorced, and Elena Mumm Thornton married Edmund Wilson in Reno, Nevada. Henry has a half-sister from Elena’s second marriage: Helen Miranda Wilson [Dabney, Lewis M. Edmund Wilson: A Life in Literature. Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux. New York; 2005] .

In 1957 Henry married Daphne Sellar [New York Times (Society Desk): June 9, 1957.] , from a prominent Newport, Rhode Island, family. Henry and Daphne had three daughters: twins, Sandra Christine and Elena Martha, and Nina Rosalie. In 1986 Sandra Thornton married Sheldon Whitehouse, who currently serves as US Senator from Rhode Island [New York Times (Society Desk): Sept. 21, 1986] . In 1985 Elena Thornton married Michael Case Kissel [New York Times (Society Desk): June 30, 1985 (pg. 43).] , a producer and musician and 3rd-great grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt.

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