![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
i just ordered (through innerliberry loan) the 3 volume transcript compiled by Benjamin Poore (no, Mr. Poore, you do not get to be a character in this story, i've got too many as it is, sorry). Poore's copy is the rarest of the transcipts and the most comprehensive. i don't know whether the library can get it for me, but i thought i would try.
in truth, i almost don't want to see it. i've gone through Pitman's copy (the most common), and also the "peanut butter" copy (which was produced by the Philadelphia Inquier ~ i call it the peanut butter copy because in my notes i write: p. x, PB, which stands for "Peterson Brothers" ~ the publishers). the peanut butter copy is the newspaper edition with questions and answers and some brief commentary. Poore's 3 volume edition is apparently the one that was taken verbatim (questions, answers, sniffles, farts, and all). because it's rare and a huge pile of paper, i was sort of ignoring it hoping that little nagging voice in the back of my brain would dissipate, but now having gone through Pitman and PB, i sorta feel i could get something useful out of Poore so long as i stick to my outline and only poke through the relevent testimonies (without getting too distracted by oooo shiny, what's that all about???). i also feel, like with the Hanty letter books, that if i'm serious about writing this novel, i can't ignore one of the obvious primary resources.
it makes me tired just thinking about it.
then i spend the evening reading the doctors' testimony of June 14th and it's so maddening and pathetic i just want to spork my eyes out ~ and i remember why i want to write this book.
so it's june 1st and i think i promised somewhere that around about june i would quit with the whole "big secret project" and code names and all that crudola. of course by now i'm so used to calling these people Poppet and Hanty, etc., it's going to be weird to stop.
that, and i still don't have a title, which is sad sad sad. so sad.
The top contenders at the moment:
the picture of the day:
Mr. Hanty and his staff on the day of the killings
(word choice very deliberate).
Hanty is sitting in the middle. he looks annoyed (it's hot and he's prolly pissed off given the circumstances). the fella sitting on Hanty's right (left to you and me) is Col. McCall ~ who is curiously not wearing or holding the hat he's described to have had that day. the fella to his left, standing, is Dr. Porter who helped Hanty get the Czar to ease up on the medievalism. the fella on the far left end is Mr. Mad ~ one of the only three people at the scene (non-reporters that i know of) who left final impressions for posterity.
a final macabre note: the chairs they are sitting on went from taking this picture straight up the steps of the scaffold to be used by the condemned while they sat in the heat waiting for the hope of an 11th hour reprieve.
in truth, i almost don't want to see it. i've gone through Pitman's copy (the most common), and also the "peanut butter" copy (which was produced by the Philadelphia Inquier ~ i call it the peanut butter copy because in my notes i write: p. x, PB, which stands for "Peterson Brothers" ~ the publishers). the peanut butter copy is the newspaper edition with questions and answers and some brief commentary. Poore's 3 volume edition is apparently the one that was taken verbatim (questions, answers, sniffles, farts, and all). because it's rare and a huge pile of paper, i was sort of ignoring it hoping that little nagging voice in the back of my brain would dissipate, but now having gone through Pitman and PB, i sorta feel i could get something useful out of Poore so long as i stick to my outline and only poke through the relevent testimonies (without getting too distracted by oooo shiny, what's that all about???). i also feel, like with the Hanty letter books, that if i'm serious about writing this novel, i can't ignore one of the obvious primary resources.
it makes me tired just thinking about it.
then i spend the evening reading the doctors' testimony of June 14th and it's so maddening and pathetic i just want to spork my eyes out ~ and i remember why i want to write this book.
so it's june 1st and i think i promised somewhere that around about june i would quit with the whole "big secret project" and code names and all that crudola. of course by now i'm so used to calling these people Poppet and Hanty, etc., it's going to be weird to stop.
that, and i still don't have a title, which is sad sad sad. so sad.
The top contenders at the moment:
In the Year King Uzziah Diedi've let Gracious Lick of a Friendly Dog fall by the wayside. i'm not crazy about any of these others either ~ but nothing yet has really throttled me as the obvious right choice.
Singing in Innocence
If Not for His Sake
The King Villain of them All
the picture of the day:
Mr. Hanty and his staff on the day of the killings
(word choice very deliberate).
Hanty is sitting in the middle. he looks annoyed (it's hot and he's prolly pissed off given the circumstances). the fella sitting on Hanty's right (left to you and me) is Col. McCall ~ who is curiously not wearing or holding the hat he's described to have had that day. the fella to his left, standing, is Dr. Porter who helped Hanty get the Czar to ease up on the medievalism. the fella on the far left end is Mr. Mad ~ one of the only three people at the scene (non-reporters that i know of) who left final impressions for posterity.
a final macabre note: the chairs they are sitting on went from taking this picture straight up the steps of the scaffold to be used by the condemned while they sat in the heat waiting for the hope of an 11th hour reprieve.
Tags: