the desk of death (and sundays with dead people) ~

[lookingland]

i have decided to quit all of my creative pursuits and just write a blog about the ever-evolving state of my desk. er, as opposed to what i seem to be currently engaged in.

i had to reconfigure the desk. the books were walling me in. they're very clingy, needy things sometimes. they make it hard to concentrate. so i turned my tv into a dictionary stand (you've probably not seen my 1893 Funk & Wagnall's dictionary ~ it's kind of immense), and moved all the books over to the table it used to occupy. this had made the dictionary crabby, but i will find it a place of honor elsewhere (just not right now).


anyway, this has alleviated the crush and made the source material easier to get a hold of (that teetering pile was just ridiculous after a week). i also put Hartranft's Letterbook into a binder (dunno what took me so long!). of course this meant punching it full of holes (that's okay, it's a lousy copy), but worse, i wound up whiling away an hour trying to read Hancock's letters. i'm getting better at it. it only takes me a few minutes to remember how to follow the stroke of the pen. bad as his handwriting is, it's consistently the same kind of bad throughout, so once you know how he writes "to the" as a one-word one blobby mess with no crossed t's, you can pretty much identify it across the board.

so yeah, that's been my morning. and just to share, i have this photo, which sold on eBay last year and which i never even bothered bidding for (as i knew it would sell for way more than i could ever hope to afford). from looking at his pictures (pretty much all of them), it's easy to see why people were scared of this guy. if all accounts didn't say what a marshmallowy underside he had, i prolly wouldn't believe it.



Hartranft in uniform seems a pretty
rare commodity. this one and another from the
same photographer of him sitting,
sold for $550 each.
all right, i'm going back to work as soon as read my flist. hope everyone is having a happy weekend!

: D

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Comments

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

golly. that is so tempting. i would feel like such a stalker, though.

maybe if i came up with some legitimate reasons to ask questions (other than just: squeeeeeeeeeeeee!), i will hit you up for their contact information.

thank you!

: D

p.s. i love Annie's letter. next to Edwin's portrait of Johnnie by his bedside, it seems to me the most heart-breaking thing in this sad history.

[faynudibranch.livejournal.com]

That's why I nabbed it -- so that someday if you (or I or Bungo) wanted it I wouldn't be kicking myself :).

Also -- in case you wanted one I picked up an extra 'Maryland Booths' poster. I guess because they're fixing up Tudor Hall they decided to advertise by making lovely posters with tasteful artwork of Junius the elder, Mary-Ann, Edwin, Pony Peacock (!), and John, as well as Tudor Hall itself. If you want I'll mail one to you. I figured, how often do peole make Booth posters? And good ones at that.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

ooooo really? and with the pony no less? yes, i would love one very much!

i will send you my address via email.

thank you!

: D