Editing Edward Sapir (section)

====Moving on====
[[File:Margaret Mead NYWTS.jpg|thumb|[[Margaret Mead]] decades after her affair with Sapir]]

The [[World War I|First World War]] took its toll on the Canadian Geological Survey, cutting funding for anthropology and making the academic climate less agreeable. Sapir continued work on Athabascan, working with two speakers of the Alaskan languages [[Kutchin language|Kutchin]] and [[Ingalik language|Ingalik]]. Sapir was now more preoccupied with testing hypotheses about historical relationships between the [[Na-Dene languages]] than with documenting endangered languages, in effect becoming a theoretician.<ref>Darnell 1990:83–86</ref> He was also growing to feel isolated from his American colleagues. From 1912 Florence's health deteriorated due to a [[lung abscess]], and a resulting depression. The Sapir household was largely run by Eva Sapir, who did not get along well with Florence, and this added to the strain on both Florence and Edward. Sapir's parents had by now divorced and his father seemed to develop psychosis, which made it necessary for him to leave Canada for [[Philadelphia]], where Edward continued to support him financially. Florence was hospitalized for long periods both for her depressions and for the lung abscess, and she died in 1924 due to an infection following surgery, providing the final incentive for Sapir to leave Canada. When the University of Chicago offered him a position, he happily accepted.

During his period in Canada, Sapir came into his own as the leading figure in linguistics in North America. Among his substantial publications from this period were his book on ''Time Perspective in the Aboriginal American Culture'' (1916), in which he laid out an approach to using historical linguistics to study the prehistory of Native American cultures. Particularly important for establishing him in the field was his seminal book ''[[Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech]]'' (1921), which was a layman's introduction to the discipline of linguistics as Sapir envisioned it. He also participated in the formulation of a report to the [[American Anthropological Association]] regarding the standardization of orthographic principles for writing Indigenous languages.

While in Ottawa, he also collected and published French Canadian Folk Songs, and wrote a volume of his own poetry.<ref>''Dreams & Gibes'' (1917)</ref> His interest in poetry led him to form a close friendship with another Boasian anthropologist and poet, [[Ruth Benedict]]. Sapir initially wrote to Benedict to commend her for her dissertation on "The Guardian Spirit", but soon realized that Benedict had published poetry pseudonymously. In their correspondence the two critiqued each other's work, both submitting to the same publishers, and both being rejected. They also were both interested in psychology and the relation between individual personalities and cultural patterns, and in their correspondences they frequently [[psychoanalysis|psychoanalyzed]] each other. However, Sapir often showed little understanding for Benedict's private thoughts and feelings{{according to whom|date=October 2023}}, and particularly his conservative gender ideology{{vague|date=October 2023}} jarred with Benedict's struggles as a female professional academic.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}} Though they were very close friends for a while, it was ultimately the differences in worldview and personality that led their friendship to fray.<ref>Darnell 1990:1972–83</ref>

Before departing Canada, Sapir had a short affair with [[Margaret Mead]], Benedict's protégé at Columbia. But Sapir's conservative ideas about marriage and the woman's role were anathema to Mead, as they had been to Benedict, and as Mead left to do field work in [[Samoa]], the two separated permanently. Mead received news of Sapir's remarriage while still in Samoa, and burned their correspondence there on the beach.<ref>Darnell 1990:187</ref>