Henry Hermann Mumm Thornton (born 1932) was a prominent banker and businessman whose young adulthood was detailed in the journals of his stepfather Edmund Wilson

Edmund Wilson

Edmund Wilson was an American writer and literary and social critic and noted man of letters.-Early life:Wilson was born in Red Bank, New Jersey. His father, Edmund Wilson, Sr., was a lawyer and served as New Jersey Attorney General. Wilson attended The Hill School, a college preparatory...

, the noted essayist and scholar. Henry was also mentioned frequently in the correspondence of Wilson with other literary notables, such as Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...

.

Edmund Wilson's journals

In the journals, Wilson wrote a detailed, uncensored account, including rather graphic descriptions of his sex life with wife Elena Mumm Thornton Wilson. Wilson did not spare Henry, of whom he was reportedly very fond. Wilson reflected on Henry’s difficulty in providing adequate income to support a ‘society’ family, Henry’s wife Daphne’s anti-Semitism, and the strained relationship of Elena and Daphne. How much of this was Wilson’s perception of reality or reality has never been determined.
A copy of Henry H.M. Thornton’s birth certificate and Thornton family correspondence are stored with the Elena Wilson Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale Collection of American Literature, Yale University.

Education / career

After graduating from St. Paul's

St. Paul's School (Concord, New Hampshire)

St. Paul's School is a highly selective college-preparatory, coeducational boarding school in Concord, New Hampshire affiliated with the Episcopal Church. The school is one of only six remaining 100% residential boarding schools in the U.S. The New Hampshire campus currently serves 533 students,...

 preparatory school in Concord, New Hampshire

Concord, New Hampshire

The city of Concord is the capital of the state of New Hampshire in the United States. It is also the county seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2010 census, its population was 42,695....

 and serving two years in the US Armed Forces, Henry H.M. Thornton entered Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

, graduating in 1958. He spent the next 30 years in banking: By the mid-1980s, Henry was senior vice president of First Jersey National Bank, Jersey City, New Jersey

Jersey City, New Jersey

Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...

.

Family

Henry H.M. Thornton was the son of James Worth Thornton

James Worth Thornton

James Worth Thornton was a businessman and scion of the politically and socially connected Thorntons of Indiana. Thornton was the son of Sir Henry Worth Thornton and Lady Virginia Blair, daughter of banker and steel magnate George Dike Blair...

 and Elena Mumm Thornton

Elena Mumm Thornton

Elena Mumm Thornton Wilson was born into an unusual, wealthy, aristocratic European family and was the fourth wife of the famed American writer Edmund Wilson. Elena was a central figure in Wilson's life from the time they met until his death in 1972. She was the literary executrix of his estate...

, a German-Russian aristocrat and partial heir to the Mumm champagne fortune. Henry was the grandson of Sir Henry Worth Thornton

Henry Thornton (railway manager)

Also in 1894, Thornton began his career in the railroad business, entering as a draftsman of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He was based in the Pittsburgh office. He was promoted to supervisory engineer in 1899 and District Superintendent in 1901. As he climbed rapidly through the PRR hierarchy, he...

. In 1946 James and Elena divorced, and Elena Mumm Thornton

Elena Mumm Thornton

Elena Mumm Thornton Wilson was born into an unusual, wealthy, aristocratic European family and was the fourth wife of the famed American writer Edmund Wilson. Elena was a central figure in Wilson's life from the time they met until his death in 1972. She was the literary executrix of his estate...

 married Edmund Wilson in Reno, Nevada

Reno, Nevada

Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...

. Henry has a half-sister from Elena’s second marriage: Helen Miranda Wilson b. 1948.

In 1957 Henry married Daphne Sellar, from a prominent Newport, Rhode Island

Newport, Rhode Island

Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about south of Providence. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport which houses the United States Naval War...

, family. Henry and Daphne had three daughters: twins, Sandra Christine and Elena Martha, and Nina Rosalie. In 1986 Sandra Thornton married Sheldon Whitehouse

Sheldon Whitehouse

Sheldon Whitehouse is the junior U.S. Senator from Rhode Island, serving since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party...

, who currently serves as US Senator from Rhode Island. In 1985 Elena Thornton married Michael Case Kissel

Michael Case Kissel

Michael Case Kissel was an American music producer and engineer notable for working with Arnold Schwarzenegger on his Total Body Workout, as well as projects with Ringo Starr, Sting, Parliament-Funkadelic, David Bowie, Rod Stewart, the Pointer Sisters, Sean Paul, the Backstreet Boys, the Four...

, a producer and musician and 3rd-great grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt , also known by the sobriquet Commodore, was an American entrepreneur who built his wealth in shipping and railroads. He was also the patriarch of the Vanderbilt family and one of the richest Americans in history...

. In 1973 Henry subsequently married Deborah Speno, granddaughter of Frank Speno, inventor of a ballast cleaning mechanism, and founder of Speno Railroad Ballast Cleaning Co. from Ithaca, New York

Ithaca, New York

The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...

. Henry and Deborah had one son, James Speno Mumm.