Blindfold

"Blindfold" by Orrick Johns is a novel written in the early 20th century. The book delves into the intricacies of human relationships and societal expectations through the lives of its characters, primarily focusing on Ellen Sydney, a resilient woman navigating the complexities of her role within the Meadowburn family and her relationship with a young boy, Potter Osprey. At the start of the novel, we are introduced to Ellen as she tends to a burgeoning garden in her new home, highlighting her connection to nature and nurturing qualities. We see glimpses of the Meadowburn household, where Ellen serves almost as a member yet is treated as a servant. Her interactions with Potter Osprey reveal a budding friendship marked by both innocence and the burdens of maturity, as they discuss school, life, and aspirations amidst the backdrop of their respective social statuses. As the narrative unfolds, themes of loyalty, societal roles, and hidden desires begin to loom over their interactions, setting the stage for future conflicts and emotional challenges. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Orrick Glenday Johns was an American poet and playwright. He was one of the earliest modernist free-verse poets in Greenwich Village in 1913-1915 and associated with the artist's colony at Grantwood, New Jersey, where Others: A Magazine of the New Verse was founded and published by Alfred Kreymborg in 1915. Johns's work "Olives," a series of fourteen small poems appeared in the first issue of July 1915. He is part of a coterie of poets and authors sometimes called the "Others" group who were contributors to the magazine or residents at the colony and included: William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, Marianne Moore, Mina Loy, Ezra Pound, Conrad Aiken, Carl Sandburg, T. S. Eliot, Amy Lowell, H.D., Djuna Barnes, Man Ray, Skipwith Cannell, Lola Ridge, Marcel Duchamp, and Fenton Johnson (poet). Johns is also associated with poets like Vachel Lindsay and Sara Teasdale. and the dramatist Zoe Akins.