Neville recounts, in a first-person lecture story, receiving a court summons because his estranged wife had been arrested for shoplifting; he testified for leniency, citing their long separation and their son living with him. The judge suspended her six-month sentence. She then personally (and, Neville notes, illegally) served him the divorce papers herself outside his hotel, and he obtained his divorce in the City of New York shortly afterward, clearing the way to marry 'the girl who now bears my name.'
Date (happened)
1936
unresolved
- 1936
Place
Persons
Told / reported
- 27 September 1968
- 27 September 1968
- 13 March 1964
Sources
Source
- Brazen Impudence ¶7 (Then she said, “It would be to your advantage as a public figure to be in court. Your wife is on trial this morning.”)
- Brazen Impudence ¶8 (He said to me, “In all my years on the bench I have never heard an appeal like this. For one who if you had this honor you could have some tangible proof or evidence to get what you want, because she tells me you want a divorce.”)
- Trust Imagination ¶40 (I met her the very first second I saw her, I said, she doesn’t know it, but she’s going to be my wife, she doesn’t know it yet, and simply I’ve slept as though we were blissfully happy.)
- The Law of Liberty ¶32 (So I thought, alright, I will now apply this law, and I slept as though I were happily married to the girl who now bears my name.)
- Proof the Law Works ¶30 (Neville's first-person lecture retelling of the court summons, his testimony for leniency, the suspended sentence, and his wife serving him the divorce papers herself)