Born February 27, 1905, Everard Hinrichs – who later changed his name to Eric Sloane – was raised in a wealthy household to parents he describes as “…harboring the least artistic tastes”. The family summered on Halsey Island, Lake Hopatcong (New Jersey), and it seems clear that it was there that Eric’s artistic intuition began to flourish.
Eric’s sister Dorothy recalled Everard as “…mischievous and careless with his possessions (his own and other’s), but in the end he was lovable and always eager to please”.
It would seem that a future of familial wealth and relative leisure would grace George Jr., Everard, and Dorothy, but that was to be an illusion of “The Roaring Twenties” – the Great Depression that followed erased the family fortune, scattering the siblings and leaving Everard destitute.