Early Personal Life
Bacon was born on May 2, 1895 in Ridgefield, Connecticut to Charles Roswell Bacon and Elizabeth Chase Bacon. She was the first of three children but raised an only child after her two younger brothers died in infancy. Bacon's parents were both artists and met while attending the Art Students League in New York.
Bacon's parents moved frequently. The family lived in Connecticut but spent winters in New York and in the winter of 1902they lived in Nassau, Bermuda. Between the ages of 9 and 11 Bacon lived with her parents in France, first in Paris and then in a house in Picardy at Montreaux-sur-Mer. Bacon's mother did not believe in formal schooling and as a result, for most of her childhood, Bacon had tutors and studied only subjects of interest to her, such as Latin, Greek, mythology, ancient history and geography of the ancient world. Bacon described her unconventional childhood as "absolutely delightful."
At the age of fourteen, Bacon began attending Kent Place School, a boarding school in Summit, New Jersey. In 1913, the same year she graduated, Bacon's father killed himself in his studio in New York. He had overcome alcoholism but was susceptible to bouts of depression. After this devastating event Bacon and her mother moved to New York City and lived on the West Side in the home of family friends.
Read more about this topic: Peggy Bacon
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