The Mysterious Disappearance of Dorothy Arnold
The New York heiress simply vanished from Fifth Ave., never to be seen again.
A Rich Family Background
Dorothy Harriet Camille Arnold was the second of four children of the famous perfume importer Francis Rose Arnold and his wife, Mary Parks Arnold. The Arnolds had originally come to America on the mayflower. The family was incredibly wealthy and deeply embedded in the New York society, its most prominent members, and socialites.
Dorothy attended school on the upper west side and was prepared for a fancy life as a young girl. She got a degree in literature and language; her dream was to become a writer. Upon graduation in 1905, she moved back to her parent’s house, where she insisted on pursuing her passion, but her parents weren’t too thrilled about it.
In the spring of 1910, she submitted multiple short stories to McClure’s magazine but was rejected. Her family’s reaction was highly discouraging and ridiculously demoralizing. However, Dorothy took the fall very gracefully and worked harder to improve her writing. She secretly corresponded with publishers to avoid her family’s unwanted scrutiny. She even asked her father to get her an apartment in Greenwich Village to work on her writing which he rejected by saying, “A…
