His Family · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in His Family by Ernest Poole.
Skim names here — open a free preview to see character cards and Character Web beside the page as you read.
Roger Gale
major
Also known as Roger, II Roger, XII Roger, XXI Roger, Even Roger, Luxuriously Roger, XX Roger
Roger Gale came to the city at seventeen and seized a wild, unheard-of opportunity — a news clippings bureau that wound through every phase of American life. Now a widower in the house his late wife Judith once owned, he presides over Friday dinners and family fractures he can't quite mend. His deep zest for living, bred in mountain boyhood, keeps colliding with the disappointments of love, the limits of fatherhood, and a world that suddenly seems to be coming apart.
Deborah Gale
major
Also known as Deborah, Aunt Deborah, Miss Deborah, IX Deborah, XIII Deborah, Sharply Deborah, Deborah Baird, Presently Deborah
Deborah comes home each night wrung out by problems and vexing toil in her vast school family, then climbs to her third-floor room past the sister she keeps failing to comfort. She tries — the knock, the low clear voice, the offer of supper — but Edith reads pity where Deborah means help, and the old house sharpens every difference in their views. Her cool head and steady hands make her the one the family calls when a crisis needs managing, even as her own marriage to Allan Baird waits patiently in the background.
Edith Gale
major
Also known as Edith, XIX Edith
Edith has returned to the old house with her children and a pregnancy that leaves her feverish, planning every hour of the baby's arrival and unable to loosen her grip on any of it. She and Deborah grate against each other — Edith sets herself like an angry old hen against all her sister's new notions, and Deborah's pity stings worse than criticism. Her husband Bruce is her anchor, but his business and her own anxious intensity leave her isolated in a house full of people.
Laura Gale
major
Also known as Laura, poor Laura, Laura Gale, Miss Laura
Laura arrives in leopard skin and reddish hair, her limousine noiseless, her views on war and marriage delivered with amused superiority. She has no baby, spends like water, and is plainly at loose ends with her husband Hal — yet she is cocksure, calling the war a clearing away of musty relics and hinting at a glorious pagan era. To her father she is the giddy-gaddy child he can't quite reproach; to Deborah she is a puzzle; to herself she is simply living her life.
Allan Baird
supporting
Also known as Baird, Allan Baird, And Baird, Allan, Telephone Allan—Allan Baird, A. Baird, Allan Baird—we
Allan Baird exists in the family mostly through others' talk: Laura sneers that Deborah's love for him is all mind and reason, the kind that can wait for years, while Deborah herself keeps him carefully out of the quarrels that swirl around her. He is the man Deborah chose, and the choice says something about her — deliberate, unsentimental, unafraid of waiting. When the family's crises demand a clear head, his name is the one that surfaces as a possible ally.
Bruce Cunningham
supporting
Also known as Bruce, Bruce Cunningham, little Bruce
Bruce works at his desk with an old briar pipe, greeting his father-in-law with a nervous smile that betrays his dread of Edith's coming ordeal. He jokes that moving the family isn't a job but a science and he has his degree — then goes to his wife and comes back with his dark features a little more drawn. Business will suffer from three days off, a muscle twitches in his face, but he shoulders the trip anyway, the way Roger once did, and the resemblance is not lost on anyone.
John
supporting
Also known as John
John is the young man Deborah has quietly taken into the family's care, and her separate washtub for his things is the first sign that his sickness has become a secret. When Edith learns he is tubercular as well as crippled by Pott's Disease, she demands he be sent away before her children are exposed, pitting a mother's fear against Deborah's fierce, indiscriminate charity. His body becomes the wedge that splits Roger's house into two camps, forcing everyone to choose what they owe a stranger.
George
supporting
Also known as George, Poor Georgie, young George, XXIII George
Since his father Bruce's death, George has appointed himself his mother's keeper, rationing out three carefully reasoned points about the accident whenever her grief turns dangerous. He meets Roger at the station with new lines in his freckled face, a voice cracking between bass and treble, and a manful insistence that they will pull her through together. His earnest, half-childish competence shows the family what Bruce left behind — and what Roger's own scattered children might have been.
Judith
minor
Also known as Judith
A friend or acquaintance of the Gale daughters.
Harold Sloane
supporting
Also known as Harold Sloane, Sloane, Harold, young Sloane, Hal Sloane, Hal, Already Hal, Young Sloane
Sloane arrives to claim Laura with an easy assurance — a good job downtown, a honeymoon abroad, a huge yellow solitaire — and Roger, who knows rings, dislikes all of it on sight. Where Roger dreamed of crooked European streets and old cathedrals, this boy knows Europe as a chain of gorgeous new hotels, and the gap between them widens into something like grief. His courtship gives the novel its first hard look at a daughter slipping out of her father's understanding and into a life he cannot read.
Isadore Freedom
minor
Also known as Isadore, young Isadore Freedom, Mr. Isadore Freedom
A friend of the family, possibly a business associate of Roger.
Johnny Geer
minor
Also known as Johnny, Johnny Geer
A young boy who interacts with the Gale family.
Dave Royce
minor
Also known as Dave Royce, Dave, old Dave Royce
An old friend or colleague of Roger Gale.
Elizabeth
minor
Also known as Poor Elizabeth, Betsy, Elizabeth, young Elizabeth
A woman from the Gales' social circle, possibly a friend of Deborah.
Madge Deering
minor
Also known as Madge Deering, Madge
A friend of the Gale daughters, part of their social circle.
Hannah
minor
Also known as Hannah, Annie
A maid or servant in the Gale household.
Father Abraham
minor
Also known as Father, Father Abraham
A historical or allegorical figure referenced in the narrative.
Mr. Gale
minor
Also known as Mr. Gale
Roger Gale's father, mentioned in family discussions.
Bill Elkins
minor
Also known as Bill Elkins, Bill
A friend or acquaintance of the Gale family.
Joe
minor
Also known as Joe
A servant or worker in the Gale household.
Shifty Sam
minor
Also known as Shifty Sam, Sam, Shifty
A minor character with a dubious reputation.
Bobby
minor
Also known as Bobby, Bob, young Bob, Bert Williams, little Bob
A young boy, possibly a neighbor or relative.
Doctor Baird
minor
Also known as Doctor Baird, Baird
A physician, possibly related to Allan Baird.
Tad
minor
Also known as little Tad, Tad, Little Tad
A young child in the Gale family circle.
Doctor Lake
minor
Also known as Doctor Lake, Lake
A doctor who attends to the family.
William
minor
Also known as William
A servant or minor acquaintance.
Gee
minor
Also known as Gee
A minor character, possibly a nickname.
Martha
minor
Also known as Martha
A servant or neighbor mentioned briefly.
Mrs. Berry
minor
Also known as Mrs. Berry
A neighbor or acquaintance of the Gales.
Doc
minor
Also known as Doc
A local doctor or informal title for a healer.
