My secret life: (as a national expert on the Gilders) -this is an email I just received:
You might find interesting a very uncomfortable fact. As I'm sure you are aware, the largest printed collection of Helena Gilder's letters is Bette Roth Young's Emma Lazarus in Her World: Life and Letters, published in 1995. Pretty much everyone writing about Lazarus cites and quotes from this edition. I had a few of Helena Gilder's manuscript letters from Columbia University, and checked them against Young's transcriptions. To my horror the transcriptions contained dozens of serious errors and inaccuracies. The book is a very badly corrupted version of the letters, and should no longer be used. Someone (not I) needs to edit the letters all over again. Please if you can check this out for yourself.
Sincerely,
K---- S------, Professor Emeritus of English, New York Unversity
My Answer:
Kenneth,
Thanks. Helena's handwriting was incredibly bad. I'm in the process of reading the letters that her daughter typed up and trying to decide if they are a viable source vs trying to dig through the originals. I'm still a few years away from writing the biography I was hoping to do. I'm retiring from my real job in three years and will have finished the novel currently in progress and was hoping for a summer at the Lily in Indiana where most of the originals are now.
I did get to visit at the Gilders farm in western Mass last year and talk to a descendant. It was interesting to get a sense of place, though the woman wasn't too interested. It seems most of Helena's artwork still in the house was carried off by a nephew who has not responded to my inquiries.
I'd love to trade notes with you.
Dan
You might find interesting a very uncomfortable fact. As I'm sure you are aware, the largest printed collection of Helena Gilder's letters is Bette Roth Young's Emma Lazarus in Her World: Life and Letters, published in 1995. Pretty much everyone writing about Lazarus cites and quotes from this edition. I had a few of Helena Gilder's manuscript letters from Columbia University, and checked them against Young's transcriptions. To my horror the transcriptions contained dozens of serious errors and inaccuracies. The book is a very badly corrupted version of the letters, and should no longer be used. Someone (not I) needs to edit the letters all over again. Please if you can check this out for yourself.
Sincerely,
K---- S------, Professor Emeritus of English, New York Unversity
My Answer:
Kenneth,
Thanks. Helena's handwriting was incredibly bad. I'm in the process of reading the letters that her daughter typed up and trying to decide if they are a viable source vs trying to dig through the originals. I'm still a few years away from writing the biography I was hoping to do. I'm retiring from my real job in three years and will have finished the novel currently in progress and was hoping for a summer at the Lily in Indiana where most of the originals are now.
I did get to visit at the Gilders farm in western Mass last year and talk to a descendant. It was interesting to get a sense of place, though the woman wasn't too interested. It seems most of Helena's artwork still in the house was carried off by a nephew who has not responded to my inquiries.
I'd love to trade notes with you.
Dan
This is the garden 120 years later
IN HELENA'S GARDEN
the sunset window
Through the garden sunset-window
Shines the sky of rose;
Deep the melting red, and deeper
Lovelier it grows
Shines the sky of rose;
Deep the melting red, and deeper
Lovelier it grows
Musically falls the fountain;
Twilight voices chime;
Visibly upon the cloud-lands
Tread the feet of Time.
Twilight voices chime;
Visibly upon the cloud-lands
Tread the feet of Time.
Evening winds from down the valley
Stir the waters cool;
Break the dark, empurpled shadows
In the marble pool.
Stir the waters cool;
Break the dark, empurpled shadows
In the marble pool.
Rich against the high-walled grayness
The crimson lily grows,
And near, O near, one well-loved presence
Dream-like comes and goes
The crimson lily grows,
And near, O near, one well-loved presence
Dream-like comes and goes
-Richard Watson Gilder
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