War changed man. Nearly all the war correspondents suffered from the war experience, and Edgar was becoming more like the famous ones who were his new friends, most of whom got divorces and younger wives.
According to Helen, Edgar wanted to enjoy his laurels, take a rest and turn over a new leaf, but she was still bogged down with all the unfinished writing never done because of all the incessant do-gooderism, year after year. However, Helen also thought it was time for a change or she might be stuck with all the old problems of all kinds though she well realized what a grand tradition it had built up as an example.
The snows shared nearly all points in common and worked together in a two-man team, but they had different personalities. Edgar was by nature thoughtless, easy-going, and absent-minded, as well as always late while Helen was well dressed, attractive, high-strung, concerned with appearance and respectability, careful, thoughtful and always responsible.
Helen especially did not like drinking- she herself never drank at all at any time and never has. She also disliked the incessant cigarette smoking, which Edgar would never give up until after the divorce- though he had sinus trouble from it.
All during the marriage, Helen forgave him, or tried to, all kinds of shortcomings, because she decided in the first year that he was not intentionally making things difficult, but thoughtless and busy with big things, not trifles.
Edgar never mentioned anything about having a separation until 1945 when they were living in New York for the winter and went to the National City Bank to make arrangements before he went overseas again. However Edgar had not been overseas long this time before he changed his mind about a separation. He arrived in 1946 with his suitcase at the backdoor in Madison, wanting to be home, saying, “this is the only place I’ve been able to work well”, as he always said. It was in his Madison home that he wrote People on Our Side, Stalin Wants Peace and The Pattern of the Soviet Power between his trips abroad. He never came back to live here after leaving in February 1947.
In America, the year 1947 was the critical time, when committees split up and the Truman doctrine took effect. The civil War in China had revived and the wartime alliances were being broken up everywhere, especially for individuals.
Edgar was in India when Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on January 30, 1948, and Edgar had talked with him a few hours earlier, during which he had asked Edgar about his wife Helen. To Edgar’s surprise, Gandhi “cared” about Helen Snow. In fact Nehru and Gandhi were much interested in marriage as a theory as well as practice, and the Snow marriage was one of the few of special interest to this subject.
They both wanted the divorce in 1949, though they had a totally opposite idea about the alimony. Possibly supported by one or two friends who hated marriage and alimony and the whole bit, Edgar was furious that Helen would demand $200 a month for alimony, and he was surprised, too. So he stated that she, being the model wife of all time, would never, never demand such a mundane thing as alimony, which he opposed on principle. Helen could not get the divorce until he had agreed to pay alimony because she wanted to have enough money to live on and write her books which she was unable to do since 1933 in Beijing, involving constantly in do-gooderism for people and causes of all sorts. In the end the judge set it at $187.50, which to Edgar was exorbitant at that time. Edgar gave Helen the house to live in but declared: “If you want a man to support you, why don’t you re-marry a rich man for a change?”
Helen was well aware of the grand tradition, and the divorce was by no means adding prestige to the Western concept of a real nuclear marriage. However she believed strongly in divorce, especially for people with special talent or problems, such as writers, artists, musicians, and public leaders, who could be easily destroyed by a marriage that caused trouble and was a drag on their development. She said that “marriage is a social contract and must be regulated by law, providing special protection for the wife in event of divorce, and of course, for any children, except in the case of divorce with grounds caused by the wife, who would then not be granted alimony to live in the style to which she was accustomed. Her children by that husband also have to be supported legally until the age of 21 or even longer. This is a lifetime commitment for the husband unless the wife is re-married.”