The Divorce Colony feat. April White
24m | Apr 24, 2023At the turn of the century, “going to Sioux Falls” was a euphemism for “getting a divorce.” South Dakota’s permissive divorce laws made the small frontier city a magnet for socialites and celebrities seeking to end their marriages. It was, the newspapers breathlessly reported, “a Mecca for the mismated” where “the ‘electrocution’ of marriage” was underway.
These stories of the women who traveled thousands of miles in search of their freedom are at the heart of April White’s finest work “The Divorce Colony: How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier.”
April White is a senior writer and editor at Atlas Obscura. She previously worked as an editor at Smithsonian Magazine, where she oversaw the publication’s history-focused coverage. She holds a master’s degree in history and has told surprising tales from the archives for publications including the Washington Post, The Atavist Magazine, and JSTOR Daily. In addition, April has authored and co-authored eight cookbooks and several other books on food and drink.
She sits down with host Dan Morell to talk about her writing process, the story of Sioux Falls, and why it's better to write about the dead over the living.
My Finest Work is a production of Dog Ear Collective and is produced by University FM.
Episode Quotes:
On the importance of telling the story of the people
05:07 - Being able to tell the story of people is really important. So, I'm not interested in this grand sweep of history. I'm interested in the really small decisions, the individual relationships that reshaped how something happened. And so, getting as close to people as possible and understanding why they made the decisions they did is important to me as a storyteller.
What made April fell in love with writing
02:13 - One of the things I liked about writing and storytelling was that you could talk about anything you wanted. It was a way to sort of explore all kinds of different worlds.
How April came across “the divorce colony”
03:47 - I knew I liked grand hotels, which were these huge structures at the turn of the century that were basically small towns in and of themselves. And so, lots happened in these public spaces. And I was interested in that. And I was researching that. And along the way, I saw the words "the divorce colony." And that was just a left turn for me. It was; what is that, and how do I learn more? And that's how it started.
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